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 be- 

 tween 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 amphisbaenians 

 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 suc- 

 cessively 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 creat- 

 ure 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 op- 

 poses 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, 



