RECREATION. 



327 



A JOINTED SNAKE. 



Editor Scientific American: 



I was raised on a farm in Missouri, where, 

 when a boy, I killed many snakes of various 

 kinds. Among them was what was known to me 

 as the joint snake. When struck, it would fall 

 into sections about i l / 2 inches in length. The head 

 end, about 4 inches long, would run away and 

 hide until it thought danger had passed. Then it 

 would return, gather up the broken sections and 

 be as good as new. In discussing snakes with a 

 friend, I have been unable to convince him that 

 there is such a thing as a joint snake. Will you 

 look the matter up, and give it space in your 

 next issue? 



N. S. Donnelly. 



ANSWER. 



Our correspondent refers to a creature which 

 has puzzled many an observer and given rise to 

 as many stories as the milk snake and the "toad 

 in the solid rock." A large percentage of the 

 farmers of the country believe there is a jointed, 

 or glass, snake, which can disjoint itself and 

 break up, to come together later; and it is diffi- 

 cult to find a country boy who will not testify 

 that he has seen the miracle; and the most in- 

 teresting feature is that they all firmly believe it. 

 To give the deluded ones credit, the actions of 

 the jointed snake are so remarkable that there 

 is little wonder the sharpest observer is de- 

 ceived; but there is a vast difference between 

 what one really sees and what one thinks he 

 sees, and herein lies the mystery of the jointed 

 snake. 



There is no animal known to science as a 

 jointed snake. What the credulous observer be- 

 lieves to be such is a lizard, Opheosaurus ven- 

 tralis ; a well known low form common East of 

 the Mississippi river and South of the Ohio. That 

 it is considered a snake is hardly to be wondered 

 at, as it has no feet; and when alarmed, darts 

 away with the peculiar gliding or wriggling mo- 

 tion of a snake, and to any but a naturalist it 

 would, doubtless, be considered a snake. But 

 the animal is a lizard, and the long cylindrical 

 tail, twice as long as the body, to the untrained 

 observer appears to be the body. This slender 

 tail is the cause of the many fables regarding the 

 marvelous powers of the glass snake, which is so 

 brittle that it can not be touched without break- 

 ing. The fact is that the vertebrae, or bones of 

 this long tail, are so delicately connected that it 

 is almost impossible to lift the animal by it with- 

 out breaking it. Any violent jerk or strain will 

 throw the tail into one or more pieces, which lie 

 on the ground wriggling with a convulsive move- 

 ment, while the head and body crawl away. It is 

 not the body of the lizard, but its long tail which 

 breaks up, a common trick among lizards. The 

 tail thus thrown off is deserted, the lizard hav- 

 ing no more power to reattach it than has a man 

 to reassume his amputated leg. But the lizard 

 has this advantage: a new tail begins to grow at 

 once, and the glass snake is in a short time itself 

 again, and may break up and be renewed an in- 

 definite number of times, as far as known. In a 

 collection of lizards caught at random in San 

 Gabriel valley, Southern California, 50 per cent, 

 had new tails in all stages of growth from one to 

 4 inches in length, being darker and readily rec- 

 ognized as new and growing tails. This faculty 

 of reproducing lost parts or limbs is common 

 among crustaceans and the, casting of tails is so 

 deftly carried out among lizards that the conclu- 

 sion is irresistible that it is intended to deceive 

 the pursuer or enemy. Another glass snake is the 

 lizard of the genus Anguis. The blind worm 

 often throws off its tail at the slightest danger, 

 and it is almost impossible to catch and retain 

 one without the loss of this member. — Scientific 

 American. 



I received the Recreation match box O. 

 K. All of Marble's goods are fine. The 

 knife you sent me one year ago I would 

 not part with for any price if I could not 

 g«t another. 



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