174 THE VIVARIUM. 
after its course has been changed a few times by quietly heading 
it, the Reptile soon becomes exhausted, and ceases to move. 
Snakes may be readily tamed by taking them gently in the hand 
when they have been tired in this way. They seem quickly to 
learn that they cannot escape, and that they are not hurt when 
they are caught. That any Snake isable to pursue a man swiftly 
for a long distance is certainly a delusion, even if it had the 
desire to do so. 
One reads occasionally that Snakes, particularly Rattle-snakes, 
will not cross a horsehair rope, and hunters are accustomed, so it 
is said, to surround their sleeping-places by the camp fire with 
such a rope in order that they may run no risk of a bite of a 
poisonous Serpent. This is also a delusion, I believe. I have 
found that Snakes will pass over horsehair bands without any 
hesitation. JI must, however, confess that I have not tried the 
Rattle-snake. The idea is that the short bristly hairs get between 
the ventral scales (see Fig. 54), and this causes pain and incon- 
venience to the Snake. 
A few other mistakes about these Reptiles are only worthy of 
a passing notice, viz., that Snakes make holes in the eggs of fowls _ 
and suck their contents; that they are accustomed to milk cows | 
and other animals; that they change their skins and eat only 
once a year. ‘To anyone who has examined a Snake’s mouth, the 
first two statements are absolutely absurd. Some Snakes, I know, 
do eat the eggs of birds, but they swallow them without break- 
ing them. A healthy Snake sheds its slough, according to size 
and age, at intervals from three weeks to three months, or some- 
times longer. All Snakes have great powers of fasting, but they 
would indeed fare very badly if they did not satisfy their appetite 
oftener than once a year. ; 
Dr. Giinther, in his ‘‘Reptiles of British India,’’ defines a 
Snake in the following words: ‘‘ Body exceedingly elongate, 
without limbs, or with merely rudiments of limbs, scarcely 
visible from without; the ribs are articulated movably with the 
vertebral column; no sternum; generally both jaws and palate 
toothed; the mandibles united in front by an elastic ligament, 
and generally very extensible. Eyelids none. Integuments with 
numerous scale-like folds, rarely tubercular.” 
