38 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



The bite of a mosquito has been known to prove fatal 

 under similar conditions. 



Their other means of defense and protection against 



their enemies are, however, numerous and interesting 



to note. Almost all of them dart out 



Methods of ^ tongue when approached, seeking 

 Defense Used 



by Snakes. thus to terrify into retreat the aggres- 

 sor. In this they are often successful, 

 especially with mankind. Most other animals seem to 

 know that the tongue is harmless and pay no attention 

 to it. Some snakes, when molested, enlarge the body 

 and so render themselves as formidable in appearance 

 as possible. They do this, either by inflating with air 

 to their fullest capacity, the long slender lungs, as does 

 the spreading viper, whence the name "puffing adder" 

 sometimes applied to it ; or by flattening the body, l>y 

 spreading out the ribs and then raising the scales, as 

 does the common garter snake and the spreading 

 viper. Certain species, when disturbed, force the air 

 from their lungs with a hissing sound. This noise, 

 no doubt, serves to frighten some of their enemies, 

 but the expelled air is, in itself, wholly harmless. 



A number of the larger snakes, among them the 

 black snake, pilot snake, house snake and spreading 

 viper, when alarmed, often try to imitate the peculiar 

 rattle of the rattle-snake by vibrating the tail with 

 great rapidity. If the vibrating tail happens to strike 

 against some dead leaves the sound is very similar to 

 that produced by the rattle-snake, and the writer, on 

 hearing it, has frequently leaped back from a harm- 

 less snake thinking that he had been deceived as to 

 the reptile before him. 



