The Poisonous Snakes of Texas. 
31 
fluent with it. A double crescentic blotch is observed on the frontal 
scuttellae (internasals and prefrontals), leaving a transversal fulvus band 
across the head between the orbits. The color underneath is reddish 
yellow, marmorated with brownish black blotches and minute dots. The 
scales are elongated, carinated and acute posteriorly. Those of the 
lateral row are slightly carinated also, but narrower than in C. consors, 
and more acute posteriorly. 
The number of ventrals (gastrosteges), 132 to 136; of caudals (uros- 
teges), 27 to 36; scale rows, 21 to 23. The greatest number of joints 
to any rattle of this species in the U. S. National Museum is nine. 
(Stejneger, “Poisonous Snakes of North America.”) 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
They are found everywhere in Texas. 
HABITS. 
Their general color is adapted to their surroundings, thus, those that 
live in open prairie in the grass, or that live on sandy land, are much 
lighter in appearance than those that live on black ground or in dense 
brush, or under houses. I have dissected a good many females, but have 
never found one that had either young or eggs. 
Dr. Stejneger quotes Professor F. W. Putnam in the American Natur- 
alist, (1868, Yol. II, p. 134), that he had once dissected a specimen hav- 
ing fourteen eggs, all with embryo two inches in length in the oviduct. 
They are much dreaded by the country people, not so much on account 
of their poison (I never knew of any person bitten by a ground rattle- 
snake but what suffered more from the remedies administered than from 
the poison of the snake) as from their quietness, their habit of livjng 
around homes and outhouses, and their sudden attack. I have found in 
their stomachs mice and crickets. They are nocturnal, but move about 
on cloudy and rainy days. 
CROTALUS ADAMANTEUS, Beauvois. 
(“Diamond Rattlesnake.”) 
Plate VI. 
DESCRIPTION. 
“'Head triangular. Two anterior frontals (internasals) connected 
with superciliaries ( supraocular s) on each side by two large plates; 
inside of these a second row; included space filled by small scales. 
Scales margining superciliaries (supraoculars) small; scattered larger 
