injected at all, but a bite from any venomous snake should be considered serious, and immediate treatment sought. Reproduction These snakes are ovoviviparous, breeding in the spring and giving birth to small clutches of 4-6 young in the early fall. The young are colored almost identically to the adults, and are approximately in length. The young are typically more nervous than the adults, and will often strike repeatedly if harassed. They reach maturity between two and three years of age. Captivity C. v. nuntius is not commonly kept in captivity. Due to its relatively small range it is not often collected from the wild. Captive breeding is not unknown, but is not commonplace. It is well represented in zoos throughout the United States, but other subspecies of C. v. viridis is more often kept. Mythology See main article: Snakes in mythology In Hopi tradition, snakes are the guardians of springs. A traditional dance is done as a prayer to bring the rain. Snakes, though not exclusively the Hopi rattlesnake, are used in the ceremony and are released afterwards with the belief that they carry the prayers of the dancers with them. References Further reading Douglas, Douglas, Schuett, Porras, Holycross. 2002. Phylogeography of the western rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) complex, with emphasis on the Colorado Plateau. p11-50. In Campbell JA, Lamar WW. 2004. The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca and London. 870 pp. 1500 plates. . Pook, Wüster, Thrope. 1999. Historical Biogeography of the Western Rattlesnake: Crotalus viridis, Inferred from Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Information. Molecular Phylogenics and Evolution, vol 15(2). pp 269–282.PDF at Wolfgang Wüster home page, School of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor (UK). Accessed 9 January 2006. External links Crotalus viridis at Discover Life. Accessed 9 January 2007. viridis nuntius Taxa named by Laurence Monroe Klauber