
REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS Oo 
ing a Water monitor, which is the largest of living lizards, the poisonous 
Russell’s viper and the deadly spectacled cobra, the last with 
Cobra Group ~~“ 
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 
Copperhead 
snakes to be found in the vicinity of New York and also the 
Snake Group 
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 
insects injurious to crops. 
Entering the darkened 
tower room we 
Bullfrog 
Eeoen find a group of 
unusual inter- 

est, showing the common 
bullfrog of North America. The bullfrog’s tongue is fastened in front and 
the free hinder end can be thrown far out of the 
mouth to capture insects 
This group is a study of the 
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. 
[Return to the elevators.| 
