_Description._ Total length about three feet; body thicker than in the innocent snakes. Head large, broad, oval, obtuse, very distinct from the neck, nearly two inches long, flattened, coppered brown above, and covered with large, smooth scales; yellow underneath, as well as the neck, and with rhomboidal smooth scales. Mouth very large; fangs yellowish white. Back flattened anteriorly, a little angular in the middle, covered with small rhomboidal, obtuse, keeled scales; those of the sides larger and smooth, not keeled; centre of the back of a brownish copper colour; sides of a bright copper; broad bands or rings, becoming forked on each side, and assuming nearly the shape of a St. Andrew's cross; they are of a reddish brown: there is a round spot opposite to the sinusses, and the scales of the sides are minutely dotted of brown. The abdominal plates are 150, beginning under the head; the last, covering the vent, is very broad, double the other: they are of a shining, pale copper colour, with two longitudinal and lateral rows of great, irregular, brown spots, with some light brownish clouds between them, and each plate is marginated of whitish. The belly is very flat and broad, about 1¼ inch in diameter; and the skin may be distended on the sides, when, the animal is not fed. Tail short, tapering gradually, about four inches long, cylindrical, brown, without spots, with 45 plates underneath, and having at the end a small, obtuse, horn claw, of an oblong, compressed, obtuse shape, and carinated underneath. This snake has many of the habits of the rattlesnake; he is very slow in his motions, rather clumsy, owing to his thick shape and short tail. He retires in winter into caves, hollow rocks, and trees, where he lies, in a torpid state, from November to April; several have been found coiled up together, the head lying over the back: it is in the same situation he sleeps in the fields. When found in the torpid state, they may be carried without waking; but might wake in a warm room. They do not eat during all that time: their food consists of birds, frogs, mice, and even squirrels, which they catch by surprise, as they do not climb on trees. They kill their large prey by breathing a poisonous effluvia, crushing it in their folds, and they swallow it whole after covering it with their clammy saliva. They can remain a very long time without a meal, and one meal is a long time digesting.