486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



posed to the hot glare of the noonday sun, or seek a safe retreat 

 beneath fallen logs or among the crevices of rocks. Its one idea 

 is to warm up its cold blood by heat borrowed from the sun, and 

 its life is one of apathetic indolence, except when in search of 

 prey. Then the serpent steals stealthily through the grass ; every 

 now and again its slender neck elevates, and the cold, stony eyes 



dart a hasty glance 

 to right and left. 

 The red tongue 

 flashes forth two or 

 three times and it 

 renews the search. 

 And now, down be- 

 side the mossy bank 

 of the brook, it es- 

 pies a luckless frog, 

 unconscious of the 



Fig. 2.— Skull of Garter Snake. gliding foe behind. 



The snake half coils, 

 then springs, and seizes its victim in a viselike grip. Struggles 

 only serve to drive in the little needlelike teeth deeper and deeper, 

 for they are all pointed backward, as one may see by looking at 

 the picture of the skull (Fig. 2). The serpent recoils, dragging the 

 resisting prey more and more hopelessly away from its watery 

 retreat. The method of swallowing is a very simple one, although, 

 if the frog be large, more than half an hour may be consumed in 

 the process. The two bones of the lower jaw are separate and 

 capable of independent movement; so the reptile loosens its hold 

 upon one side of its jaw, and, pushing that side forward as far as 

 possible, it drives the teeth in again, and then draws the jaw back 

 to its original position. The result is that the prey is drawn down 

 by the movement. The process is then repeated by the other half 

 of the jaw, thus inevitably forcing the victim inward. The snake's 

 skin stretches enormously, and the jaw is, of course, dislocated, 

 but the extensible ligaments hold the bones together. The dispro- 

 portion between the diameter of the frog and the serpent's slender 

 neck is indeed marvelous, and snakes have been observed to split 

 themselves open by attempting too ambitious a mouthful. After 

 perhaps half an hour of laborious contortions, all that is seen of 

 the poor frog is a great swelling that the contracting muscles are 

 rapidly forcing down the reptile's neck. If one liberates the cap- 

 tured frog before it is too late, the wretched animal often seems 

 so overcome by fear, or perhaps stupefied by the serpent's saliva, 

 that it will not leap, but crawls in a painful manner. We must 

 not allow ourselves to be duped into a mistaken sympathy, how- 

 ever, for such is the poetic justice of the case. Large frogs 



