ITEMS OF SNAKE KNOWLEDGE. 469 
Snakes eat many kinds of living creatures, mostly rats, mice, lizards, 
frogs, toads, and birds. 
Snakes are not migratory. 
On the approach of winter, snakes crawl away into crevices, holes, 
under refuse, behind the bark of trees, etc., and lie dormant, more or less, 
till the springtime. During this time they do not eat or drink. 
Snakes love warmth and sunshine. © It is life to them. 
Snakes strongly dislike the smell of disinfectants. The fumes kill 
them. 
The oil from the stem of a tobacco pipe, if put into the mouth of a 
snake, will almost instantly kill it. 
One drop of this highly poisonous oil will kill the largest serpent. 
Some snakes are quite blind. They burrow in the ground, and look 
more like worms than snakes. The head and the tail look nearly alike. 
Some people say they are two-headed snakes. 
Most of these burrowing snakes have a small spine on the end of the 
tail. None of them are venomous. 
South African Pythons grow to 25 feet in length. They prefer rocky 
moist valleys, where there is plenty of water. 
A Python can swallow a full-sized Duiker Buck. 
A snake’s mouth and throat can stretch enormously. The bones of 
the lower jaw are not joined in front, consequently they can be pushed 
wide apart. The skin of the mouthand throat stretches like indiarubber. 
Pythons will not eat, as a rule, in captivity. 
Pythons lay as many as 45 eggs. They are each some 54 oz. in weight. 
A Python was dug out of an Aard Vark’s hole. It was found coiled 
up around a large batch of eggs right at the bottom of the hole. It was 
hatching them. 
Some snakes kill their prey by constriction. Others by poison. Some, 
such as the Green Water Snakes, simply swallow their victims alive. 
The bones of a snake’s head are loose. That means they are not 
firmly joined together in the rigid manner of those of the higher animals. 
Snakes’ teeth are for grasping or holding their prey. 
The teeth are re-curved. They are sharp and pointed. 
There are three classes of snakes—the Front-fanged or typical venomous 
snakes, the Back-fanged snakes which are more or less venomous, and the 
Solid-toothed snakes, which are harmless. The latter do not possess any 
grooved teeth or venom glands. 
A Boa Constrictor in the London Zoo swallowed her blanket. When 
it was pulled out it looked like a huge sausage, and was wet and slimy. 
Snakes’ eyes are protected from injury by a transparent scale in front, 
which is like a tiny watch-glass in shape. 
A Boomslang in the Port Elizabeth Museum swallowed a full-grown 
Green Water Snake. It was irritated with a stick, whereupon it disgorged 
its victim, which was none the worse, for, within a minute of being cast 
up, it caught and swallowed a frog. 
On another occasion a Boomslang swallowed another, and was forced 
to disgorge. It began again and swallowed it a second time, and was 
again made to disgorge. The victim was as lively as ever, and did not 
seem at all alarmed. 
