SNAKES. 147 



its supple body ! How mighty is the coil of the python 

 that will kill a deer ! 



The snake has no feet, as feet are commonly under- 

 stood. It moves by its backbone and by its ribs. On 

 the under side of the body are scales, one of which is 

 joined to each pair of ribs. The pairs of ribs move 

 forward and backward, and the scales attached to them 

 catch on the rough ground with each motion. This 

 operation gives the animal its gliding gait. The snake 

 is adapted to swimming, and to climbing trees, but it 

 would make bad work trying to crawl on glass. 



The bones in the head of the snake are joined by 

 elastic ligaments, so that it is able to swallow animals 

 much larger than its head appears to be. Snakes 

 never chew their food, but swallow it whole. Their 

 eyes have no eyelids. Their hearing is dull. All 

 snakes are as "deaf as an adder." The forked tongue 

 is the feeler nothing else. There is no harm in it. 

 The teeth are simply for holding the prey; not for 

 chewing. There is no poison in them, and their bite 

 is harmless. 



In temperate climates, snakes lie torpid during the 

 winter. When active, they, like all other animals, are 

 seeking for food. The common ones are after insects, 

 frogs, mice, rabbits, fish, and birds. They have no 

 power to charm animals. Snakes either catch their 

 prey and immediately swallow it, or they wind their 

 coils about it, as do black-snakes and boa-constrictors; 

 or they thrust poison fangs into it, and thus cause its 

 death. No snake, not even the python or the boa, 

 seeks human flesh for food. Neither threaten nor harm 

 a snake, and, as a rule, it will let you alone. 



