812 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL mST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
its attacker about the head and lips during the process. The lizard paid not 
the slightest heed to these demonstrations on the part of its victim, but sw al- 
lowed it in a few gulps and seemed none the worse for the experience. 
Bombay Nattjeal History Society, S. H. PRATER, C.M.Z.S. 
\&th Ma/y 1922 
No. XVII.— THE SENSES OF A SNAKE. 
The sight of snakes is not good in the day time even in the case of diurnal snakes 
with round pupilled eyes. Those snakes that stalk their prey instead of way- 
laying it, do so chiefly by means of the tongue. The two branches of the forked 
tongue, flickering up and down, come in contact with the two footprints of the 
animal or reptile stalked and then dart up to its own nose, each branch convey- 
ing to one of the nostrils the scent of its prey. 
n a snake is watched stalking prey which it cannot see, in long grass for 
instance, it will be noticed that it follows the exact course, no matter how twisted, 
of the creature it is after, which proves that until the prey is sighted the snake 
depends on scent and not on hearing. 
It is uncertain whether the tongue of a snake is able to sense a scent spoor it- 
self, or whether it is entirely dependent on the nostrils of the snake to do this ; 
at any rate the tongue appears to act as the carrier of the scent to the nostrils. 
If the tongue itself could sense a scent spoor, it would no doubt receive it in 
the form of taste. It is, however, doubtful whether a snake possesses much, if 
any, sense of taste. Several instances have been reported, and I have seen a few 
cases myself, where snakes in captivity have seized and swallowed cloths, and, 
in one case even a stick, which had previously come in contact with, and absorbed 
the scent of rats, which the snakes, relying chiefly on their sense of scent, mis- 
took them for. It must, however, be admitted that in aU such cases I have 
heard of, the snakes in question have been Pythons, which, being nocturnal 
snakes, with eyes adapted for night work {i.e., elliptic-pupiUed), see badly in 
the day-light. 
One of the most notable examples of such an accident, was the case of a Py- 
thon at the London Zoological Gardens which seized and swallowed a rug. I do 
not know whether the snake was misled by feeling or by scent in this case, but 
it helps to show that snakes possess little or no sense of taste. 
A snake’s tongue appears to act as a guide as well as a scent carrier, playing 
the same part as whiners do in a cat. As, however, a snake is not totally blind 
and only bad sighted, it is curious that it uses its tongue as much as it does, 
when not hunting. 
Possessing no external ears, even in the form of ear-holes, the hearing of snakes 
is bad. Sounds appear to be conveyed to it chiefly through vibrations through 
the ground, and it is easily disturbed by footfalls, while often remaining deaf to 
louder noises above groimd level, and I have foimd that it is possible to approach 
closer to a snake without alarming it, when walking on a ground level above it, 
as for example walking on the bund of a paddyfield when the snake is lying 
below the bund. 
A. F. ABERCROMBY. 
Travancoee. 
\2th July 1921. 
