190 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CJHAL-. 



It is hardly necessary to state nowadays that the sting 

 of a snake is neither in its tail nor its tongue. There are 

 indeed some people so ignorant of natural history, that 

 they could scarcely distinguish, without the assistance of 

 a label, between a puff-adder and a bumble-bee. And by a 

 natural confusion of ideas they fancy that the " venomed 

 worm " has its sting in the tail. There are a greater num- 

 ber, however, who believe that the sting is in the tongue. 

 And this with more show of reason ; for the forked arid 

 quivering tongue of the snake is constantly playing in 

 and out of the mouth in an ominous and uncanny fashion. 

 It is however, a tender, delicate, and quite harmless organ, 

 which can be retracted into a sheath in the lower part of 

 the mouth, and which is highly sensitive as an organ of 

 touch. It is probably not an organ of taste. Indeed, 

 snakes would seem to be very deficient in this sense. 

 A large boa in the Zoo, partially blind owing to her 

 approaching change of skin, struck at a rabbit, and 

 seized her blanket instead. She seemed, however, quite 

 satisfied that she had secured her prey, constricted it, and 

 very contentedly proceeded to swallow the dainty morsel. 

 It was with difficulty that she was forced to disgorge the 

 long flannel-sausage, which was scarcely recognizable from 

 the abundant coating of slimy mucus from the salivary 

 glands. The old writers thought that this mucous secre- 

 tion was supplied by the tongue ; and Bingley quotes an 

 old observer, who states that a boa-constrictor, having 

 caught and constricted a buffalo, was then " seen to lick 

 the whole body over, and thus cover it with a mucil- 

 aginous substance to make it slip down the throat more 

 easily," thus giving the boa credit for performing an 

 operation which Mrs. Hopley aptly likens to whitewashing 

 a ceiling with a camel's hair paint-brush. The tongue is 

 neither a sting nor a lubricator, but a delicate organ of 



