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LIVING CREATURES. 



as badly frightened by mice and beetles, as by snakes. 

 One peculiarity of these creepers, which makes them 

 dreadful, is that they move so obscurely and silently in 

 the grass. Then they are cold-blooded like toads, and 

 the touch of them is not agreeable. On the other 

 hand, snakes are useful, as their bill of fare shows, and 

 they are truly beautiful. The scaly, many-colored, and 



Rattlesnake. 



glistening skin of some of them is as handsome as the 

 feathered garb of beautiful birds. 



The movements of snakes are graceful. The back- 

 bone of some snakes is composed of more than three 

 hundred parts ; and to each of these parts is attached a 

 pair of ribs. How quickly and easily it turns and coils 



