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Banded or Timber Rattlesnake — Part 3
In the coast swamps of South Carolina and Georgia, the "Cane-brake Rattlesnake" is rather different in habits from its ally of the mountain ledges. This phase of the Banded Rattler grows to a large size and the majority of specimens are vicious and untamable. Their temper is quite as different as is the malarial lowgrounds they inhabit, when compared with the rugged, mountain haunts of the upland phase of Timber Rattlesnakes.
The food of the Banded Rattlesnake consists entirely of warm-blooded prey in the shape of small rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice, and birds.
Like all of the rattlesnakes, this species is viviparous--bringing forth living young, that are provided with a single "button" at birth representing the future rattle. The young are of much the same colouration as the parent, but a yellow snake will frequently give birth to young that represent both the yellow and the black phases, as has also been frequently noted with black females.
Following are notes pertaining to the birth of several broods, from females that had been but a few weeks in captivity:
Sept. 6. Brood of 12. Female from Pike Country, Pennsylvania.
Sept. 7. Brood of 9. Female from Sullivan County, New York.
Sept. 12. Brood of 12. Female from Sullivan County, New York.
Sept. 12. Brood of 7. Female from Sullivan County, New York.
Sept. 18. Brood of 9. Female from Sullivan County, New York.
A specimen of the brood born on September 6th, was exactly twelve inches long at time of birth. This same snake--after feeding regularly--was again measured on November 19th, and found to be fourteen and a half inches in length.