472 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



In the Port Elizabeth Museum two snakes will often seize a frog. Both 

 start swallowing. When their noses meet, the larger usually engulphs 

 the smaller and swallows him whole, frog and all. 



The study of snakes is called Ophiology. 



People speak of the " Wisdom of the Serpent." They have no more 

 wisdom than a lizard. 



Snakes are animals, inasmuch as they belong to the great Animal 

 Kingdom. 



Snakes are classed as Reptilia, of the Order Ophidia. 

 Snakes can be divided into five groups, viz.. Burrowing Snakes, Tree 

 Snakes, Fresh-water Snakes, Sea Snakes, Terrestrial or Ground Snakes. 



Snakes hunt for their prey mostly during the daytime, and the early 

 part of the evening. 



They also issue forth on warm moonlight nights. On the slightest 

 approach of chilliness of the air they retire to their retreats. 



Snakes have been known to live over two years without food. 



Young Puff Adders, born in the Port Elizabeth Museum, grew two 

 inches in length and a quarter of an inch in breadth, without food. From 

 the moment they were born, till three months later, they refused all food, 

 yet they grew in length and girth. 



As soon as the young of the snakes are born they shift for themselves. 

 Their mothers take no heed of them. 



Snakes are not very hardy. When injured, even slightly, they fre- 

 quently develop abscesses and die. 



If a snake's brain and its heart, or either, be removed, it will squirm 

 a long while. 



After severing the head the body of a snake will wriggle, coil and quiver 

 for many hours. 



If the nose be irritated, the jaws of the severed head sometimes open, 

 the fangs spring erect, and the mouth closes with a snap. 



Snakes can penetrate into the innermost retreats of rats and mice, 

 hence their great value as vermin destroyers. 



Learn which are the harmless kinds of snakes, and protect them. 

 They are your friends. If you want to make certain, send them to the 

 author of this book, and he will be pleased to tell you. 



Snakes in captivity when kept warm will accept dead food. 



Snakes hunt chiefly by sight and smell. 



In Bechuanaland, a Cobra was found in a fowl house with five whole 

 hens' eggs inside it. The Cobra was killed, the eggs taken out and set 

 under a hen. They all hatched out into healthy chickens. 



Another Cobra was discovered in a hen's nest. It immediately dis- 

 gorged six eggs entire, there not being a crack in any of them. 



Indians sometimes catch Cobras by placing fowls' eggs inside a wire 

 cage in the snakes' haunts. The Cobra enters between the wires, swallows 

 one or more eggs whole, and consequently cannot escape. 



The author had a pet Enghsh canary. One morning he found a snake 

 coiled up inside the cage, asleep. It had swallowed the bird whole, and 

 could not get through the wire bars of the cage. 



