SNAKES. 95 



of animal life. It is also found in India, the Moluccas, and Australia. When full grown, 

 the muzzle of the male is very deeply cleft, or forked, the two branches diverging from 

 each other, and presenting the singular appearance shown in the illustration. The female 

 has no horns, and in the male they are short and blunt while the creature is young, not 

 obtaining their full length and sharpness until it has attained full age. These curious 

 forked projections belong to the skull, and are not merely a pair of prolonged scales or 

 tubercles. 



THE large and important order at which we now arrive, consists of reptiles which are 

 popularly known as SNAKES, or more scientifically as OPHIDIA, and to which all the true 

 serpents are to be referred. 



Almost every order is bordered, so to speak, with creatures so equally balanced between 

 the characteristics of the orders that precede and follow it, that they can be with difficulty 

 referred to their right position. Such, indeed, is the case with the Ophidia, from which 

 are excluded, by the most recent systematic zoologists, the amphisbsenians and many other 

 footless reptiles, now classed among the lizards. The greater number of the Snakes are 

 without any vestige of limbs, but in one or two species, such as the pythons, the hinder 

 pair of limbs are represented by a pair of little horny spurs placed just at the base of the 

 tail, and are supported by tiny bones that are the undeveloped commencements of hinder 

 limbs. Indeed, several of the true lizards, the common blindworm, for example, are not 

 so well supplied with limbs as these true Snakes. 



The movements of the serpent tribe are, in consequence, performed without the aid of 

 limbs, and are, as a general rule, achieved by means of the ribs and the large cross scales 

 that cover the lower surface. Each of these scales overlaps its successor, leaving a bold 

 horny ridge whenever it is partially erected by the action of the muscles. The reader will 

 easily see that a reptile so constructed can move with some rapidity by successively 

 thrusting each scale a little forward, hitching the projecting edge on any rough substance, 

 and drawing itself forward until it can repeat the process with the next scale. These 

 movements are consequently very quiet and gliding, and the creature is able to pursue its 

 way under circumstances of considerable difficulty. 



Oftentimes the Snake uses these scales in self-defence, offering a passive resistance to 

 its foe when it is incapable of acting on the offensive. Any one may easily try this 

 experiment by taking a common field Snake, letting it glide among the stubble or into 

 the interstices of rocky ground, and then trying to pull it out by the tail. He will find 

 that even if the reptile be only half concealed, it cannot be dragged backward without 

 doing it considerable damage, for on feeling the grasp, it erects all the scales and opposes 

 their edges so effectually to the pull that it mostly succeeds in gliding through from the 

 hand that holds it. I have often lost Snakes by allowing them to insinuate themselves 

 into crevices, and have been fain to let them escape rather than subject them to the 

 pain, if not absolute damage, which they must have suffered in being dragged back by 

 main force. 



The tongue of the Snakes is long, black, and deeply forked at its extremity, and 

 when at rest is drawn into a sheath in the lower jaw. In these days it is perhaps hardly 

 necessary to state that the tongue is perfectly harmless, even in a poisonous serpent, and 

 that the popular idea of the "sting" is entirely erroneous. The Snakes all seem to 

 employ the tongue largely as a feeler, and may be seen to touch gently with the forked 

 extremities the objects over which they are about to crawl or which they desire to 

 examine. The external organs of hearing are absent. 



The vertebral column is most wonderfully formed, and is constructed with a special 

 view to the peculiar movements of the serpent tribe. Each vertebra is rather elongated, 



