LOCOMOTION OF SERPENTS. 



261 



160 



i 



Serpents climb trees by the same mechanism and actions as in 

 the first kind of locomotion ; the edges of the erected scutes 

 laying hold of the bark in succession, as the body glides spirally up 

 the bough. The tail has a prehensile faculty, especially exercised 

 by the great Constrictors while waiting for their prey. 

 They instinctively select a tree at the part of the 

 stream easiest of access to the thirsty mammals of 

 the forest, and suspend themselves, like a parasitic 

 creeper, from an overhanging branch, the head and 

 fore-part of the body being floated by the bladder- 

 like lungs upon the stream. 



Serpents are too commonly looked down upon as 

 animals degraded from a higher type ; but their 

 whole organisation, and especially their bony struc- 

 ture, demonstrate that their parts are as exquisitely 

 adjusted to the form of their whole, and to their 

 habits and sphere of life, as is the organisation of 

 any animal which we call superior to them. It 

 is true that the serpent has no limbs, yet it can 

 outclimb the monkey, outswim the fish, outleap the 

 jerboa, and, suddenly loosing the close coils of its 

 crouching spiral, it can spring into the air and seize 

 the bird upon the wing : all these creatures have 

 been observed to fall its prey. The serpent has 

 neither hands nor talons, yet it can outwrestle the 

 athlete, and crush the tiger in the embrace of its 

 ponderous overlapping folds. Instead of licking up 

 its food as it glides along, the serpent uplifts its 

 crushed prey, and presents it, grasped in the death- 

 coil as in a hand, to its slimy gaping mouth. 



It is truly wonderful to see the work of hands, feet, and 



161 



/ 



Motion of serpent 



by undulations of 



trunk. CG'iv. 



a 



Motion of serpent by arching the trunk . cciv. 



fins, performed by a modification of the vertebral column 



-by 



