REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS 



53 



Cobra Group ' 



Copperhead 

 Snake Group 



ing a water monitor, which is the largest of living lizards, the poisonous 

 Russell's viper and the deadly spectacled cobra, the last with 

 hood distended and poised ready to strike. The cobra is 

 said to be the cause of a great majority of the 20,000 deaths which annually 

 occur in India from snake bite. Examine carefully the group of the copper- 

 head snake or "red-eye," one of the two species of poisonous 

 snakes to be found in the vicinity of New York and also the 

 group contrasting the harmless water snake with the poison- 

 ous water moccasin of southern cypress swamps. Two groups are devoted 

 to rattlesnakes, which are easily recognized by the string of rattles at the 

 end of the tail, by means of which they give warning before they strike. 

 There are comparatively few species of poisonous snakes in the United 

 States, about sixteen in all, 

 comprising rattlesnakes, the 

 moccasin, copperhead and 

 two kinds of coral snake. 

 All other species are harm- 

 less and in spite of the 

 almost universal prejudice 

 against them are a very use- 

 ful ally of man since they 

 live chiefly on rats, mice and 

 nsects injurious to crops. 

 Entering the darkened 

 tower room we 

 find a group of 

 unusual inter- 

 est, showing the common 



bullfrog of North America. $ Tne bullfrog's tongue is fastened in front and 



mi • • i <> ,i the free hinder end can be thrown far out of the 



lhis group is a study of the moutn to capture insects 

 bullfrog undisturbed in its 



typical haunt. It illustrates the changes from the tadpole to the adult frog 

 and shows many of the activities of the frog — its molting, swimming, 

 breathing under water and in air, croaking, and "lying low" before [an 

 enemy; also its food habits in relation to small mammals, to birds, snakes, 

 insects, snails, to small fish and turtles. 



Bullfrog 

 Group 



[Return to the 



