The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-10-03
ABOUT SNAKES.


Many Erroneous Ideas Entertained Con-
corning Them-The Poisonous and Dan
gerous Comparatively Few in Number
nd Variety.
More than once, in the history of
wars, two valiant armies have marched
together, looked, each other in the face,
and then ran away, each scared out of
its wits by the mere sight of the other.
In the history of men and snakes the
same thing has frequently happened.
The man runs in one direction and the
snake in the other, and it is hard to tell
which is the more frightened.
We are apt to look upon snakes as
terrible monsters, but they seem to look
upon men and boys as equally terrible,
and the most poisonous serpent will fly
if it has Il fair chance, and only fights
when it finds itself cornered.
There are many wrong ideas enter
tanned about these gliding reptiles, and
it may not be amiss to stick pin in
some of these false notions and let out
what truth is in them. The general
idea seems TO be that all snakes are hOr-
ridly ugly and deadly poisonous mon
sters, iercely bent on destroying the
race of man, and armed with a forked
sting which they constantly thrust out
from their dreadful jaws in search of
victims
The fact of the matter is that many
snakes are very handsome, being bril-
liant in color and graceful in form,
while their flexible, gliding motion is
perhaps the most attractive of all move
ments in the animal kingdom. AS for
the forked sting, it is only the tongue
of the serpent, and is as soft and harm
less in its touch as piece of velvet.
The poisonous organs are a pair of
long teeth or fangs, often sharper than
needle. These are either hollow, or
they have sort of canal down the
inner side. The poison is liquid which
lies in a gland at the base of the fang
! The moment the teeth enter the flesh of
victim certain muscles press on the
gland, the poison is forced out, and
runs down the hollow of the tooth and
into the wound.
As for the forked tongue, which
plays in and out with such rapidity, it
seems to be the feeling organ of the
serpent 1t is used as we use our
fingers-to ind out more about things
that can be told by the eyes.
The great majority of snakes are as
harmless as a mouse. In all North
America there are only three or four
poisonous kinds of snakes. These are
the rattlesnake, the moccasin and the
copperhead, which are very dangerous,
and q little snake found in some of the
Southern States, called the harlequin,
which is only slightly poisonous All
these snakes, except the harlequin, are
marked by a deep pit on each side OF
the head, between the eye and the nos
tril. What the pit is for no one knows,
but ifany of my readers meets a snake
with these holes in the sides of its head,
he had better have business in the other
direction if he does not want to gel
into trouble,
Most of our common snakes are as
harmless as doves. The black the
whip and the milk snake, the water
and garter snake, the hog-nosed snake
and the big and ugly pine snake o.
New Jersey, with many other common
species, may be handled as safely a;
one would handle q flexible strip of In
lia rubber. There is no reason why
man, boy or girl should show the same
senseleSs fear of snakes as is shown by
monkeys. These animals, as is wei
known, are dreadfully afraid of snakes
and can not be made to come near ever
dead one, but will stand off at a SAT,
distance, chattering and flying in wilt
fright if the slightest motion is seen
The human race is like the mon Ike.
race in this. They seem born with
natural dread of snakes.
The rattlesnake is born with small
knob or button at the end of the tail
After that, every time the snake shed
its skin, as rule a new rattle
added. But this may happen three o
four times year, and it is not possibl
to tell the age OF n snake by the nun
Der of its rattles. They are all alike i
one thing; they shake the tail, causin
rafting sound, when they are di:
| turbed or c0rnered.
There are in all from fifteen
eighteen species of rattlesnakes. Som
of these average seven or eight fee
long. The most common variety
| the mountains Of the Middle State
r aud IL the South is the banded rattl