THE SERPENT'S TONGUE 139 



tongue is against such an hypothesis; and if the 

 structure were different it would only remain to 

 be said that the instrument performs its work very 

 badly. 



Another explanation which has been put for- 

 ward by two well-known writers on serpent life, 

 Dr. Stradling and Miss Hopley, remains to be 

 noticed. These observers came independently to 

 the conclusion that the snake makes use of his 

 tongue as a decoy to attract its prey. 



In the case of one of these writers, the idea was 

 suggested by an incident in our Zoological Gardens. 

 A fowl was placed in a boa's cage to be eaten, and 

 immediately began hunting about for food on the 

 floor of the cage; the serpent apparently seen 

 merely as an inanimate object protruded its 

 tongue, whereupon the fowl rushed and pecked at 

 it, mistaking it for a wriggling worm. Such a thing 

 could not well happen in a state of nature. The 

 tongue may resemble a wriggling worm, or, when 

 vibrated very quickly, a fluttering moth; but we 

 cannot assume that the serpent, however motion- 

 less it may lie, however in its colour and pattern 

 it may assimilate to its surroundings, is not recog- 

 nised as a separate and living thing by a bird or 

 any other wild animal. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that so far 

 from being silent on this subject, as Ruskin 

 imagined, the " scientific people " have found out 

 or invented a variety of uses for the serpent's 

 tongue. By turns it has been spoken of as an 



