390 



THE TRANSITION TO LAND 



If the tail is thrown off during the chase, it will attract the enemy because 

 it will wiggle actively for a time after being thrown off. The glass 

 snake often does this and the rest of the superstition was pieced together 

 from this one fact. A new tail will be regenerated, but it will require 

 several months to be completed. 



Snakes. The mere mention of this word is enough to send shivers 

 down the spine of many a person that has heard so many weird snake 

 tales that he almost thinks of these creatures as being supernatural. 

 There is probably no single group of animals on the earth more feared 

 than the snakes, yet an objective study of their habits shows that they 

 are not deserving of such a bad reputation. The fear is not inborn, as 



• • some think, for a child will not show this unnatural fear unless he sees 



• ,such reactions among his elders and hears the many wild superstitions 



Photos by Winchester 



Fig. 26.13. Pit viper head characteristics. This head of the copperhead shows the 



elliptical or slit-like pupil of the eye, the pit anterior and slightly ventral to the eye, 



and the arrow-shaped head characteristic of the pit vipers. 



that some people seem to take delight in repeating. As a whole, snakes 

 are highly beneficial to mankind, for they destroy great numbers of ro- 

 dents, which are among our worst enemies. A farmer who wantonly 

 chops the heads off the snakes that he finds on his farm is doing himself 

 great harm, for the rodents which these snakes would have eaten will do 

 great damage to his crops and stored grain. Some wise farmers collect 

 large bull snakes and turn them loose in the barn to keep down the rodent 

 population. 



Unfortunately, there are some snakes that have fangs connected to 

 poison sacs and are capable of inflicting a poisonous bite, which in some 

 cases may be venomous enough to cause the death of a human being. 

 In spite of whatever benefit they might be otherwise, such snakes are 

 undesirable members of the earth's population and should be destroyed 



