THE LIVING WORLD. 
211 
of the assertion, and have come to doubt that it has any liking for milk. This 
little reptile does certainly catch rats and mice, so that its presence in the 
kitchens and smoke-houses ought to be encouraged. 
The Ground Snake is another reptile that should receive a better favor 
than is commonly meted out to it. This creature is profusely distributed 
throughout the Western States, especially in prairie districts. Its greatest length 
is perhaps three feet, and the markings are almost too indistinct for description, 
resembling the ground, except that there are four very faint yellowish lines 
traversing the body longitudinally. Its food is entirely field-mice and obnoxious 
insects, such as grubs, grasshoppers, and vegetable-eating beetles. 
Among the other common snakes of America, familiar to nearly all my 
readers, are the garter snake, green snake, bead snake, ribbon snake, chain 
snake, thunder snake and gopher snake. The two latter are of considerable 
size, and both belong to the black snake species. The thunder snake is for¬ 
midable to others of the genus, in which respect its habits are much like those of 
the king snake. The gopher snake sometimes reaches a length of eight, or even 
nine feet, but is extremely timid, making its home very frequently in a gopher’s 
hole, from which fact the name is derived. In many countries, notably among the 
South American Indians, the harmless species of snakes are hunted for the 
flesh and are esteemed great delicacies. 
TORTOISES AND TURTLES. 
The transition from snakes to tortoises seems sudden and unnatural, 
especially in a work of this character, which pretends to the introduction of 
species in the order of their development, or supposed evolution of creation ; 
SKELETON OF CxLYPTODON. 
but to those who have made any study of zoology it will not appear so. 
Tortoises and turtles, under the general classification of reptiles by naturalists, 
are included under the term chelonia , and properly so because of certain iden¬ 
tities chief of which is the similarity that exists in the lung and heart 
organization which has served to distinguish them as cold-blooded creatures, and 
particularly because of their methods of locomotion, which is by creeping, 
