The Poisonous Snakes of Texas. 
35 
superciliary plate, dividing it into three sections, the central rather nar- 
rower. Here, too, the posterior facial stripe, instead of passing to the 
angle of the month, goes hack of it on the second row above the labials,, 
in Crotalus atrox, passing directly to the angle of the mouth. Other 
important distinctions are seen in the narrower scales of Crotalus con - 
fluentus , etc. 
From Crotalus lucifer, the more narrow head, fewer and larger inter- 
superciliary scales, lighter color, arrangement of color along the head, 
will at once distinguish it. 
Number of ventrals (gastrosteges), 177 to 187; number of subcaudals 
(urosteges), 23 to 28; number of scale rows across the body, 25 to 27.” 
(Stejneger, “Poisonous Sank es of North America.”) 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
Dr. Stejneger (“Poisonous Snakes of North America,” p. 439), says: 
e( Crotcdus atrox covers a considerable area, embracing the arid portion of 
Texas, parts of southern New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of California, 
southward into Mexico. In Western and Southern Texas west of about 
the 97th meridian, this species appears to be the rattlesnake, being appar- 
ently common in all suitable localities.” 
I have found it in Matagorda, Calhoun, • Jackson, Lavaca, Victoria, 
Aransas and Nueces counties. It was very common in those counties 
twenty or thirty years ago, and is still the principal rattler of the coast 
region. It was known among ranchmen and cowboys as the Prairie Rat- 
tler to distinguish it from Crotalus adamanteus. I have always regarded 
Crotalus atrox as a variety of Crotalus adamanteus , for the reasons that 
I have frequently found them together, both in winter quarters and in 
their summer wanderings, and I have found every variation of the color 
pattern from one type to the other. I have never found the two species 
in actual coitus, but I have found the male of one species and the female 
of the other species together under very compromising circumstances. 
HABITS. 
Crotalus atrox comes out of winter quarters in February or March, 
according as spring is late or early. I have found them mating as early 
as March 14th and as late as June 20th. The female lays eggs, generally 
twelve at a time. She lays two clutches several weeks or a month apart. 
The eggs of the first clutch are all contained in one oviduct. The second 
clutch of eggs are all from the other oviduct. Thus, a mating female 
cut open the latter part of March had twelve eggs, a little smaller than 
rice grains, in the right oviduct, and nothing in the left oviduct. Another 
mating female, cut open in May, had twelve eggs in the right oviduct 
