SERPENTS, OR SNAKES. 105 



ing, and retaining prey. The tongue is long, and 

 capable of being run out much beyond the mouth, and 

 it can be concealed within a sheath at its roots. They 

 shed their skins every year, and most of them lay eggs 

 from which the young are hatched. There are more 

 than a thousand kinds of snakes, and more than a 

 hundred kinds in North America. Some of the largest 



Fig. 175. Black Snake. 



in the Tropical regions, as the Boas and Anacondas 

 of South America, and the Pythons of Africa and In- 

 dia, are thirty or forty feet long, and are able to swal- 

 low dogs, deer, and even oxen after they have crushed 

 them in their powerful folds. 



The Black Snake and the Striped Snakes are the 

 most common kinds in North America. The former 



5* 



