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NO animal, perhaps, is so little known and understood 

 as the snake. This is not because its study has been 

 neglected or overlooked, as our scientific institutions are 

 replete with fine collections of most of the reptiles, and 

 exhaustive works upon their habits and customs. Yet, not- 

 withstanding this, the snake continues to be the subject of 

 ever-recurring stories, fabulous in the extreme, that seem 

 handed down from generation to generation. Strange to say, 

 many of these stories are current among those who, from 

 the nature of their lives, would be expected to be well and 

 accurately informed on the habits of the animals. Farmers 

 and horticulturists are plentiful who religiously believe that 

 the Milk Snake, the beautiful Ophibolus clericus, deprives 

 milk-giving animals of their supply of milk. A statement 

 often seen, and that has many believers, is that the Whip-snake 

 of the South seizes its tail which is supposed to have a 

 sting in its mouth, and rolls away in the form of a wheel, 

 stopping suddenly and striking the enemy with the sting. 

 Such fables are current by the score, and denial only 

 strengthens belief. 



More than a hundred species of snakes, nearly all having 

 a wide geographical range, are found in America, north of 

 Mexico. They constitute the first order, Ophidia, of reptiles, 

 and have long, cylindrical bodies, are footless, without a 

 shoulder-girdle, and invested with a coat of scales, which is 

 shed in the summer months. Snakes have no eyelids in the 

 strict sense of the term. Their eyes are permanently covered 

 by a delicate membrane that takes the place of the lid, and 



