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NATURE STUDY. 
flat, while in others each scale has a ridge or keel along 
the middle lengthwise. The number of scales and the 
presence or absence of ridges upon them are useful to the 
naturalist in describing the snakes and in determining the 
genera and species. The ridges are also of great use to 
the snake himself, for they help him to change his skin, 
when it becomes too tight for him. As the new skin forms 
beneath the old, the ridges on the new scales lift up and 
loosen the old skin, so that the snake is at last able to 
work his way out of it. In those snakes having smooth 
scales, countless fine hairs grow beneath the old skin and 
loosen it in the same way as do the ridges or keels. These 
fine hairs give the snake a beautiful glossy appearance 
when he has first shed his skin, but they,soon die and fall 
off, having served the only purpose for which they 
grew. 
There are many things about the snakes of great in¬ 
terest, but none more so than its mode of walking, and 
none that is more generally misunderstood. There is a 
popular notion that a snake can run very swiftly and for 
a great length of time, but it is a mistake. The speed of 
a snake is never great, as compared with that of most 
quadrupeds, and such speed as he has can be maintained 
only for a short distance and at a great expenditure of en¬ 
ergy. As a consequence, land snakes, like other land 
reptiles, rarely wander far from home. Unless compelled 
to extra effort by lack of food, they live in the same locali¬ 
ty year after year, and die there at last. A snake has from 
120 to more than 200 feet and four times as many muscles 
that he uses in walking; also, by reason of his peculiar mo¬ 
tion, he drags his body over about twice the distance that 
he actually gets ahead. Hence, walking is, for a snake, 
a tiresome and costly exercise ; it uses up his energy 
very fast. Kvery boy who has chased a snake over open 
ground knows how easy it is to come up with him. 
