266 HASTY OBSERVATION 



when danger is past gets itself together again 

 and goes its way. 



Not long since a man published an account in 

 a scientific journal of a glass snake which he 

 had encountered in a hay-field, and which, 

 when he attemjDted to break its head, had 

 broken itself up into five or six pieces. 



He carefully examined the pieces and found 

 them of regular lengths of three or four inches, 

 and that they dovetailed together by a nice and 

 regular process. He left the fragments in the 

 grass, and when he returned from dinner they 

 were all gone. He therefore inferred the snake 

 had reconstructed itself and traveled on. 



K he had waited to see this process, his ob- 

 servation would have been complete. 



On another occasion, he cut one in two with 

 his scythe, when the snake again made small 

 change of itself. Again he went to his dinner 

 just at the critical time, and when he returned 

 the fragments of the reptile had disappeared. 



This will not do. We must see the play 

 out, before we can report upon the last act. 



There is, of course, a small basis of fact in 

 the superstition of the glass snake. The crea- 

 ture is no snake at all, but a species of limbless 

 lizard, quite common in the West. And it has 

 the curious power of voluntarily breaking itself 

 up into regular pieces when disturbed, but it is 

 only the tail which is so broken up; the body 

 part remains intact. 



Break this up and the snake is dead. The 

 tail is disproportionately long, and is severed at 



