136 



THE OREGON NATURALIST. 



about for there were no rough places on the 

 glass for his plates to catch upon 



Ted usually took his mea.s aoout ten 

 days apart but on one occasion he went 

 an unusually long time without eating 

 and then went entirely blind, his eyes 

 turning to a blueish white. After remain- 

 ing in this condition for about a week his 

 eyes began to grow clear again and in 

 three more days he began to shed his out- 

 er skin. His blindness had been caused 

 by the secretion of the material that was 

 to form a new covering for his eyes, for 

 snakes cast off the outer coat from over 

 the eyes with the rest of the skin. 



The first time he moulted he had con- 

 siderable trouble in getting rid of his old 

 cuticle, for it came off a little at a time and 

 it was two days before he succeeded in 

 discarding the last of it. About two 

 months afterward he moulted again and 

 and with much less labor for that time his 

 skin came off all in one piece, loosening 

 first at the lips and turning backward 

 until it was dragged off inside out like a 

 stocking. While removing his old coat 

 Ted frequently crawled back and forth 

 through his little tub, and when his hard 

 work was over he curled up in the water 

 with nothing but his nose above the 

 surface. 



In every snake's mouth there is a little 

 opening just beneath the snout which is 

 never closed. Through this opening the 

 reptile thrusts out his long forked tongue 

 to feel of everything that comes within his 

 reach, tor with the snake the tongue is the 

 organ of touch. With Ted this little open- 

 ing served another purpose for he did not 

 drink, as snakes in books do, by lapping 

 up the water with his tongue, but would 

 put his mouth down to the water and 

 with his lips closed would drink through 

 that small aperture, puffing out and draw- 

 ing in his cheeks as he sucked up the 

 water. 



I think that I could have kept Ted very 

 well through the winter by putting his 

 barrel down in the cellar, or by piling 

 straw around it, but I did not care to do so, 

 for 1 do not believe that it is right to keep 

 any wild animal in captivity all its life; so 

 when summer was over I liberated him in 

 ample time for him to find suitable winter 

 quarters before cold weather set in. 



The boys often ask uie if Ted will re- 

 member me and come back in the spring, 

 and I always feel obliged to say that he 

 will not. Snakes are capable of doing 

 many remarkable things, but still they 

 are of very low intelligence and probably 

 cannot distinguish one person from 

 another. I may meet with Ted again 

 some day, but if 1 do he most certainly 

 will not recognize or remember me. 



Ted's scientific name was Heterodon 

 platyrhinus, and he belonged to one of the 

 most curious of all the genera of snakes. 

 One of the most remarkable traits of this 

 species of snakes is their e.xtreme liability 

 to go into hysterics, or to have the lockjaw, 

 when they are tormented. When a 

 spreading adder is ill treated he will make 

 terrible demonstrations of rage and then 

 will actually go into a fit, turning over on 

 his back and lying motionless for an hour 

 or more Many people imagine that when 

 the snake is in this condition it is deliber- 

 ately pretending to be dead, simulating 

 death to escape further molestation. 1 

 never saw Ted take fits of this kind for 1 

 always took care not to hui:t him in any 

 way. 



There is a common belief regarding 

 snakes which is so utterly silly that i 

 would not think it worth mentioning if 1 

 had not been asked about it so often. 

 The snake is thought to ha/e marvellous 

 power of "charming" its prey, of 

 fascinating men and other animals by 

 simply looking at them. Many people 

 also believe that there are men who have 



