'Aug. 22, 1903.]' ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
146 
the pit vipers (family CrotaUdcB) , they are movable, and 
-when not in use may be swung back out of the way 
against the roof of the mouth. 
The coral snakes are represented in our fauna by only 
two or three species. They are long, slender animals, 
with small heads and with their bodies verj-^ conspicu- 
ously, even brilliantly, marked with vermilHon red, black, 
and yellow. These colors are arranged in bands which 
encircle the body, their width and number varying some- 
what according to the species and the age of the indi- 
vidual. In the harlequin snake (Elaps fulvius'), which is 
by far the commonest representative of the family within 
our limits, the red and black bands are of nearly equal 
width and much broader than the yellow bands. In the 
Florida coral snake (Elaps distans), the black and yel- 
low rings are of nearly equal width, and the red is cor- 
respondingly increased. The harlequin snake has a rather 
broad yellow band encircling the middle of the head, 
while the Sonoran coral snake (Elaps euryxantlms) has 
almost the entire head black ; in the latter species the tail 
is only about one-fourteenth the total length, while in 
both the other species it is abo!it one-seventh. 
The Sonoran coral snake apparently occurs within our 
limits only in Arizona, and does not seem to be common 
even there. The Florida coral snake is A-ery rare in col- 
lections and may possibly be only a peculiar variation of 
the harlequin snake, which is found in the same region. 
The harlequin snake, however, is found not only in 
Florida but as far west as Texas and as- far north as 
southern Ohio and central Missouri ; in the southern 
poi'tions of this range it seems to be rather common. 
,As to the habits of these interesting snakes, we know 
■ • 
a' 
inner rowefUgth 
CUttr rotr cf hfth. 
• • • * »' 
Fig. 1. — IDiagram to show tlie arrangement of the teeth in /V, 
a venomous snake; in B, a harmless snake. 
'comparatively little, as even the most common species is 
of a retiring nature, and seems to spend most of the time 
ihidden under logs or burrowing about in dry, loose earth. 
As a group, they are believed to feed largely upon other 
snakes, but have also been known to eat mice, lizards, and 
possibly insects. In one case a harlequin snake was 
caught in the act of swallowing a black snake as long as 
itself, and when dissected was found to contain a partly 
digested garter snake. 
Dr. Einar Lonnberg, of the Universit3' of Upsala, in 
Sweden, visited Florida some years ago. and while there 
had an opportunity to observe the harlequin snake. He 
regards it as perhaps the most dangerous species in that 
,State, not even excepting the diamond rattlesnake. He 
says: "It is regarded as a 'pretty little snake.' Few 
icople know or believe that it is poisonous, it looks so 
larndess, and as a consequence they catch it and handle it 
roughly; the snake gets angry, bites, and a human life 
is endangered. I know personally of such a case. A 
Swede at Oakland, Orange county, found an Elaps, and 
Fig. 2.— Side view of skulls of a harmles,s snake and a coral snake ; 
q.u., quadrate bone; e.s., eye socket; t., teeth of upper jaw; 
/, teeth of lower jaw; /., fangs. 
)ecause of its beautiful color he caught it and tried to 
)ut It mto a bottle of alcohol. The snake bit him, but 
the wound was not large, and as it did not swell he did 
not care much about it at first. After a while he was 
taken very sick, went to bed, asked for a physician, and 
drank whisky; but it was then too late. He died the 
lext mormng, about twelve hours after the snake had 
utten him. Diu-ing the last hours he was unconsciou.s. 
Hit before that he suffered the most excruciating pains. 
L have heard of several other cases of boys dving frotn 
m Elaps bite. In other cases people have been' bit'len by 
m Elaps fttk'iits without suffering from it in any way, 
>ut I suppose that in such cases the Elaps had not been 
ible to inject any poison into the wound, as it has a 
rather small mouth." Dr. Lonnberg's statement, as well 
IS the records of a number of similar cases, show tint 
-he action of the poison of the liarlequin snake is slow 
:ompared with the very rapid action of the poison of our 
)ther venomous snakes. There is also little or no local 
:ffect. The wounds made by the fangs are small, almost 
nsignificant. and the part bitten does not swell much, but 
he poison is absorbed and in an hour or two begins to 
ihow its effects. The method of inflicting the bite differs 
yeatly also in the harlequin snake and the rattlesnake. 
Che latter lunges forward, drives its fangs into its victini 
)y the force of the lilow, and immediatelv draws fiack: 
he harlequin snake seizes a suitable part "and h;ings on", 
,eeking to work its fangs deeper into the Mesh, nnd often' 
las to be pulled away. 
Under ordinary circunislance-s it is a good natiuvd 
make an<l does not attempt to bile, but. when ei^counlered 
It should be handled with great care. It would seem that 
animals so conspicuously marked as the coral snakes 
should be very easily recognized, but, unfortunately, in 
the region inhabited by them, there are several perfectly 
harmless snakes which imitate them so closely that even 
a person fairly well acquainted with reptiles would need 
to look twice before deciding upon their character. Of 
course, if the snake is dead an examination of its teeth 
v/ould settle the question at once, but if it is alive the 
matter becomes more difficult. The observer wili have no 
trouble, however, if he will remember that in the coral 
snake the black rings are bordered on each side with yel- 
e.s. 
Fig. 3. — Side view of skull of Rattlesnake. 
low, while in its imitation the reverse is the case, the yel- 
low rings being bordered on each side with black. 
Coming now to the pit vipers we will find that this 
family contains the remaining species of our venomous 
snakes, about fourteen in all. They are strongly marked, 
repulsive looking serpents, usuall.v sluggish in habits, and 
to a great extent devoid of the grace which is so charac- 
teristic of other kinds. Their head is rather large, in 
some cases markedly so, and swollen at the back so as to 
be more or less triangular, but this outline is not fully 
carried out, for the nose is blimt and rounded. Compared 
with the size of the head, the neck is somewhat more 
slender than in the harmless snakes and the body is 
stouter and more clumsy. The distinguishing character 
of the pit vipers, however, and the one which has given 
them their name, is a deep pit which is to be found on 
each side of the head between the nostril and the eye. 
No one has 5'et been able to tell the use of this pit. It is 
not connected in any wa}'- with the poison apparatus nor 
with the nostrils. It is possibly the seat of a sixth sense, 
a supposition which is supported by the fact that the pit 
is abundantl}'^ supplied with nerves. It might also be re- 
marked that the pit vipers are to be distinguished from 
our other snakes by the fact that most of the plates on 
nostril 
Fig. 4. — Side view of head of Rattlesnake. 
the under surface of the tail are undivided like those 
on the belly, while in the harmless species they are ar- 
ranged in two rows. Of course it will be necessary to 
apply these finer details of construction only in the case 
of the water moccasin and copperhead, for the rattle- 
snakes are instantly to be recognized by their rattle. 
All the pit vipers bring forth their young alive, but, so 
far as is known, the broods are small, less than a dozen 
being produced at one time. For a time after birth the 
young are probably cared for by the parent, and, in some 
cases, at least, have been known to escape danger by 
running into the mother's capacious gullet. 
The copperhead (Agkistrodon contortri.v) is not an 
uncommon snake in many parts of the Eastern United 
States. It has been found as far north as central Massa- 
chusetts, as far west as Illinois, and as far south as 
southern Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. On account of 
its sinister reputation few would think of the copperhead 
as a beautiful snake, but among those who can recognize 
beauty even in a reptile, this one is regarded as most 
exquisitelj' colored. It is, however, a snake to be greatly 
dreaded, for it seems to be more aggressive and more 
active than the rattlesnake, and inflicts its bite without 
warning. Perhaps to compensate for these facts nature 
has given to it a venom less virulent than its more noisy 
relative, the rattlesnake, and death from its bite is a very 
rare occurrence. 
The water moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus), as its 
name implies, is a frequenter of water courses, and as 
I'ig. 5. — \'iew of the lower .surface of the tail of a harmless snake. 
such is found from Texas northward to southern Illi- 
nois and the great Dismal Swamp in northeastern North 
Carolina. It does not occur in the mountain streams, but 
in the lowland rivers and bayous of the Southern States 
it becomes at limes abundant. It is a larger and heavier 
snake than the copperhead, and is probabli^ quite as ready 
to make an attack on anyone who comes within its reacli. 
lis venom is the least dangerous of any of our poisonous 
snakes, liut from the fiict that the large size of the snake 
msures an nbundaut supply of the poison the 1)ite i,>i 
probably quite as severe in its consequences as is that of 
the copperhead. The name "cottonmouth," a common 
appellation of the water moccasin in some places, is given 
on account of the white lining of the m®uth, which is 
conspicuously exposed when the snake opens its jaws to 
bite. 
The rattlesnakes, as has been already stated, are easily 
distinguished from all the other venomous snakes by the 
fact that in these the end of the tail bears a peculiar 
horny, jointed structure which, when rapidly vibrated, 
produces a rattling or whizzing noise very similar to the 
song of the cicada or the grasshopper. Aside from this 
structure, however, they show a number of differences 
which have led zoologists to divide the group into a num- 
ber of genera. Only two of these are now commonly 
recognized: Sistrurus, containing three rather small 
species known as the "ground rattlesnakes," and Crolalus, 
containing about seventeen species (ten of which occur 
within our limits), which may be known as "true rattle- 
snakes." The ground rattlesnakes may be distinguished 
at once by the fact that the top of the head is covered 
with large, plate-like scales much like those on the heads 
of the harmless snakes, while the true rattlesnakes have 
the top of the head cover&d with small scales like those 
on the body except for a few larger ones on the snout in 
front of the eyes. The ground rattlesnakes, two kinds of 
which occur within our limits, are rather smaller than 
most of the species of the genus Crotalus, and on that 
account are less dangerous, but their bite would, to say 
tiie least, be very unpleasant. They occur over a wide ex- 
tent of territory, from New York to VVisconsin and 
Nel)raska, and southward to Te.xas and Arizona. 
It will be impossible here to speak in detail of any 
species of the true rattlesnakes, notwithstanding the great 
interest which centers about them. They occur over the 
greater portion of the United States in favorable locali- 
ties, some species distributed very widely and others very 
urcsreijes • , 
I'ig. G.— View of the lower surface of the tail bf one of the Pit- 
vipers, showing the undivided vu-osteges. 
locally. They are especially abundant in the States which 
lie on the Mexican boundary, not less than eight species 
being known from that region. Further to the north- 
ward the number rapidly diminishes, and most localities 
possess but a single species. They live in all kinds of 
places, but are naturally exterminated very quickly in the 
open ground, and hence are now most often found in 
woodland or among rocks. 
The largest is the well-known diamond rattlesnake of 
Florida and the adjacent States, which reaches a length 
of over eight feet, but there are in the Western States 
several species which do not reach a length of more than 
three feet. Almost all of them are strikingly colored. 
Usually the ground color is yellowish, brownish, or red- 
dish, and on this are spots or blotches or bars of darker. 
One species, the "white rattlesnake" (Crotalus mitchellii) , 
is grayish yellow with small brown dots, while another, 
the green rattlesnake (Crotalus lepidiis), is grayish green 
with rather broad, jet black bands. In the southwestern 
part of the country a species (Crotalus cerastes) is found 
which is peculiar in having a small horn over each eye. 
The venom and the poison apparatus have probably 
been more thoroughly studied in the pit vipers than in 
any other venomous snakes and the pages of Forest and 
Stream have already contained several articles on the 
subject. Nevertheless a brief resume of the matter may 
be of interest. 
The mechanism of the fangs, the muscular arrangement 
poison qfand 
Fig. 7. — Side view of the head of a Rattlesnake dissected to show 
the poison apparatus. 
for moving them, and for injecting the poison at the 
proper time can perhaps be understood by referring to 
some of the accompanying figures, but the poison itself 
is of such a complicated character chemically that it is 
still but poorly understood. In appearance it is indis- 
tinguishable from the venom of the coral snakes, but its 
action is much more rapid. In fact, if a considerable 
quantity is injected into the blood of an animal the effects 
are almost instantaneous. 
.Some years ago the author Iiad in his possession a 
specimen of the common rattlesnake of the Eastern States 
(Crotalus liorridus). It was a diminutive individual, 
about nine inches long, one of seven found under a stump 
near Cumberland, Maryland. When first brought in it 
v»'as ready to strike at anything offered to it. One day 
two young mice were put into the box in which it was 
confined, and almost immediately one of them was bitten 
i>s it ran past the snake. The fangs seemed to penetrate 
just behind tlie neck and before the mouse had gone six 
inches further its hind legs were paralyzed, and it dropped 
dead within half a minute. Soon afterwards the second 
mouse was bitten, this one in the side; but the action of 
the pnison was the same, and death followed as quickly. 
Although the bite of any one of the pit vipers is ex- 
ceedingly dangerous to man, it is not necessarily fytal, 
for much depends upon the conditions both of the snaVe 
and of the person bitten. The stock of poison carried 
1j3'^ one of the reptiles is small, and if it has been ex- 
hausted by a recent attack upon some other animal 
sufficient i|uantity may not be on hand to produce de itli. 
A cliild or a weak person will succumb more quickly than 
a strong healthy man. Furthermore, if the bite is in- 
flicted on 4 part of the body in which tUe circu!at{oti is 
