Our Natural Enemies. \ 87 



this explains the stony stare, so disagreeable to many, that 

 all snakes have. 



The skeleton of snakes is so arranged as to allow the 

 greatest freedom and flexibility. Numerous pieces of bone, 

 hollow in front and convex behind, make up the long taper- 

 ing backbone, which literally works on a ball-and-socket 

 plan. Articular facets, that lock into each other, are found 

 upon the processes of the vertebrae, and these strengthen 

 and give to the backbone a greater degree of flexibility. A 

 more remarkable arrangement, however, is found in the 

 head, which enables the snake to prey upon animals that are 

 larger than itself. The jaws seem a combination of elastic 

 springs, having no gauge to their tension, the quadrate bones 

 connecting the lower jaw with the skull being movable, 

 thus allowing that enormous gape with which all are famil- 

 iar who have seen a snake swallow its prey. Besides this, 

 the bones of the jaw itself and palate are more or less mova- 

 ble, also tending to the larger distention of the throat. 



As snakes do not tear or mutilate their prey, their teeth 

 are not set in sockets, but serve merely to poison and stu- 

 pefy the prey, or to prevent its escape, acting as hooks by 

 which the body is hauled over the victim. The bones of 

 the lower jaw, as we have seen, are not fastened closely to 

 each other; so in swallowing prey the teeth on one side are 

 advanced, and then those on the other side, and so on until 

 the victim is hauled, hand over hand, as it were, into the 

 snake's throat. 



Poisonous snakes, such as the rattlers, have two long, sharp 

 fangs, each compressed and bent up, and forming a hollow 

 tube, open at both ends. The upper portion of the hollow 

 fang is fastened to a bone in the cheek, which moves with 

 ease, so that, when not in use, the fangs can be packed away 

 until needed. 



All animals, man included, have doubtless in their saliva 

 a deadly poison, though in the latter it is extremely diluted, 

 and essential only to the digestion of food. In poisonous 



