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the Rattle Snake and the Copperhead, is not an internal poison, or 

 is not injurious if taken inwardly (unless an internal scratch should 

 let it into the blood), and its fearful effects occur only when the 

 poison is injected into the blood system. 



Some of the serpents which kill their prey before eating, cover 

 it with a slime before swallowing, if it be of large size. We know 

 definitely of snakes covering rabbits with slime before attempting 

 to swallow them. It is probable that only those animals which are 

 covered with hair or feathers, or are very dry, like the toad, are thus 

 treated before they are swallowed. 



How Snakes "Run'' or Move. 



A serpent literally walks on the ends of its ribs. That is to say, 

 the ribs are jointed to the back bone, and as they extend down 

 over each side of the body their ends are in connection with the 

 ventral plates, which have projecting edges at their rear margins. 

 As these plates hold to the objects beneath the animal its body 

 is brought forward upon the supporting and movable ribs. In this 

 method of locomotion is to be found the explanation of why snakes 

 can not run on smooth glass nor upon such objects as brussels 

 carpet. Glass is so smooth that the ventral plates are unable to 

 hold to it, and after they have been thrown forward the animal 

 can not carry itself along. In attempting to crawl on brussel 

 carpet the surface of which is composed of small upright stiff 

 threads, the piling springs backward by the pressure of the ventral 

 plates when the reptile attempts to move itself forward, and it 

 thus fails to find a leverage, just as upon the smooth glass. 



Do Snakes Lay Eggs? 



This is a question commonly asked, the answer to which many 

 persons do not understand. It is known that some species of ser- 

 pents lay eggs, as farmers often plow them up and upon opening 

 them they find the embryonic snake within the leathery covering. 

 The eggs of the same species vary in size and shape, but are almost 

 always oval in outline, and covered with a thick, soft, pliable, light- 

 colored leathery membrane. As a rule, it is the constricting snake, 

 or those which kill their i)rey by squeezing it, that lay eggs. How- 

 ever, there are other species of snakes that bear living young, or 

 more strictly, give birth to young which are enveloped in a very 

 thin membrane at the time they are born, and thus their method 

 of reproduction is to be comjiarcd to the laying of an egg which 

 hatches the time it is laid. The egg-laying species are called 

 oviparous, and those species that bear living young are called ovovi- 



