Ii6 JUNGLE ISLAND 



nearly as warm as I was. The reason is simple. 

 Their temperature is the same as the air around 

 them, or the ground over which they crawl. A 

 snake lying out in the heat of the tropical sun 

 may have a temperature of a hundred degrees. 

 He will be just as warm as the sunshine is. This 

 is one reason w^hy snakes, as well as ants and 

 termites, thrive better in the tropics, where they 

 are not obliged to lie stiff and still through the 

 winter. 



Even in this warm snake paradise, everything 

 is not pleasant for them. They are commonly 

 attacked by the army ants, by birds, and by 

 other snakes. I even heard of a snake whose 

 tail was so covered with blood-sucking ticks that 

 he was mistaken for a rattler. 



Snakes make their home in the thick layer of 

 palm leaves that thatches the native huts, and 

 live there on the other little animals, the lizards, 

 rats, and mice that find the thatch a convenient 

 hiding place. John English likes to tell of the 

 time when he fumigated a hut like this where he 

 was living. There were too many bugs and 

 larger animals for his comfort, and he decided to 

 usie sulphur fumes to drive them out. This hut 

 was a grand one, with walls. After it had been 

 closed all day he aired it out thoroughly, and 

 when the sulphur smoke was gone the family 

 went to bed. In the night he was wakened by a 

 thud on the floor and there he found a big boa 



