21 8 SNAKES. 



stantly see it asserted that snakes * move with difficulty 

 over smooth surfaces.' Their actions have not excited 

 sufficient attention and study. Have you ever watched 

 them moving about in their bath at the Zoological Gardens .'' 

 The motions of a python once particularly struck me. The 

 earthenware pan was smooth polished ware, and with enough 

 water in it to render it smoother, if that be possible. The 

 reptile was not swimming, for the thicker part of its body 

 was not even wholly submersed. The pan was too shallow 

 for that, and too small to permit of any portion of the python 

 being fully extended. It moved in ever-varying coils and 

 curves, yet with the greatest ease, its head slightly raised, 

 so that the nostrils and mouth were out of water. It 

 seemed to be enjoying its bath, as it actively glided, turned, 

 and curved in that wonderful fashion which Ruskin described 

 as ' a bit one way, a bit another, and some of him not at all.' 

 There could be no hold for the scutae in this case, nor could 

 I detect any action of the ribs as in crawling over a less 

 smooth surface. The creature seemed to move by its easy 

 sinuations, and with no more effort than you see in the 

 fish at an aquarium. Perfectly incomprehensible Is this lax 

 and leisurely movement in shallow water. Even the inert 

 little slow-worm astonishes us by its physical achievements, 

 which will be duly described in its especial chapter. 



But among the most characteristically active are the small 

 and slender tree snakes, the DryadidcB and DcndropJiidce, 

 mostly of a brilliant green. These and the Whip snakes are 

 exceedingly long and slender, the tails of many of them 

 very gradually diminishing to a fine and attenuated point. 

 Some of them are closely allied to the lizards, and skim and 



