BULLETIN FLORIDA MUSEUM NATURAL HISTORY VOL. 38, PT. 1(5)


were hidden from view on 120 occasions during the summer, a few large meals
probably went undetected. Food items consisting of anything smaller than rabbits
and large squirrels are difficult to discern in a coiled diamondback.
 Four species of mammals were identified as prey items in the gastro-intestinal
tracts of 14 eastern diamondback rattlesnakes from north-central Florida (Table 2).
The dominant prey were rabbits (Sylvilagus sp.) and cotton rats (Sigmodon
hispidus). Three prey remains were of unidentified mammals. Two of the
identifiable remains were taken from Ordway rattlesnakes; remains of a cotton
mouse (Peromyscus gossypinus) were taken from the small intestine of M4.
Cotton mice occur on the preserve in densities of 4-20/ha (Brand 1987) making it
one of the more common prey available to C. adamanteus. A rabbit was taken
from the stomach of a captured male that died during an October cold spell at the
Ordway pole barn.
 These two prey remains would be the extent of our knowledge of Ordway
rattlesnake food habits if it had not been for the circumstances surrounding the
disappearance of a radio-collared wood rat (Neotomafloridana) on 9 April 1989.
An adult female, one of the subjects of a study on this species (HaySmith 1991),
could not be located for several weeks. Then, a signal was discovered transmitting
from a position near the prairie edge on the western side of Goose Lake. The radio
collar was now in the stomach of an adult eastern diamondback rattlesnake coiled
in a sawgrass (Cladiumjamaicense) stand.
 A radiograph was taken to locate the position of the wood rat's transmitter in
the snake's GI tract when it was discovered that the snake was carrying two radio
transmitters, one from the ingested wood rat, and one which I had implanted on 5
April 1986 (Fig. 2). This was Ml, my first study subject, who I had lost in the Mill
Creek Swamp when his radio failed in May 1986; he had been living in the wild
for three years since last seen. His location in the saw grass was about 200 m from
where the snake had originally been captured on 27 August 1985. Wood rats occur
in densities of 1-3/ha on the preserve (Eisenberg unpubl. data) and represent a
fairly large meal for a rattlesnake (about 130 g). A number of Ordway rattlesnake
locations in mesic-hammock palmettos were very close to wood rat nests
(HaySmith et al. in prep.). In addition to the rodents and rabbits reported here,
diamondbacks also are known to occasionally feed on such birds as towhee,
bobwhite, king rail, and wild turkey (Klauber 1972).

 Habitat Use.- Locations of five Ordway rattlesnakes were used in the
analysis of habitat selection. Female Number 2 (F2) did not have equal access to
several of the habitats being considered and was eliminated from the analysis
(Byers et al. 1984). Habitat-use data for one rattlesnake (M3) tracked for two
consecutive years were treated separately, yielding a sample size of six.
 Rattlesnakes preferred the Swamp Forest/Mesic Hammocks, Xeric
Hammocks, and Wet Prairies to other habitats within the Ordway (Table 3). Based
on utilization-availability analysis, rattlesnakes used these habitats, which