Wichita eagle., 1889-02-01
INTELLIGENT REPTILES.
Interesting Statements About the
Famous Joint-Snakes.
A Marylander's veracious, Entertaining
and Instructive Experiences-TheM Mar.
velous Smartness of the Hook
and-Eye Serpent.
tMarvland Cor, Cbicaeo I ,ter ocean

HS we GILL 10 mere, Cne ''QOOR-duu-eyo, Snaho
since l was boy. It's q snake of brown
1sh-yellow color, and grows to be about
! three feet long, but at any stage of its
growth it can be unjointed OF unlocked. 1t
is fastened together by q hook-and-eye ar.
rangement, exactly like those used on la
dies dresses On one occasion, while out
/ taking walk, l saw joint snake crawl
| Ing slowly along the top of an old stone
wall. Taking my cane gave it a smart
| jerk about the middle of the body, and it
! Immediately unlocked into sixteen pieces,
! each about two inches long. Taking the
head part and putting it in my hat for
safe keeping, gathered up the joints and
/ laying them along in row in just the re-
verse order in which they came apart, with
all the eyes in contact, and also the hooks.
/ took the head part out of my hat and
laid it alongside of the middle Of the row
of joints 1t Immediately began to move
along the line, and without a moments
hesitation backed up to the first joint,
when little snap was heard and the first
joint was hooked on. 1t repeated the
process, and in the course of sixty-five sec
onds by the watch it was again complete
snake.
Again catching it / took out the ninth
Joint and also the fourteenth, and changed
places with them, putting the ninth in
place of the fourteenth, and then let the
snake 60 He gave one OF two wriggles,
but finding there was something wrong
commenced examining his joints from his
head down, and when he came TO the ninth
took it out and laid it on one side, then crawl
ing along the rest of his joints until he
came to where the fourteenth ought to be,
but where had put the ninth, took that
out and hooked it On to the eighth and
! then put the fourteenth back in its place,
all of which was done in an incredibly
small space of time. Again l separated
him, mixing the joints up promiscuously
and hooking them together, having some
difficulty in hooking the tail joint on to the
! head part, as the hook and eye did not gee
very well. Letting thu snake loose, in 11515
seconds he was again properly jointed and
let him go.
Another time ! caught snake just as
she was laying her eggs, and unlocking
her proceeded to examine the joints sepa-
rately. She was very long snake, having
eighteen joints besides the head section,
making nineteen in all. ! found when I
got to the tenth joint it was full of eggs
the eleventh had none, twelfth full and so
on, every other one had eggs until the six
teenth was reached, when it only had one
egg and the rest were too small to hold an
egg. let her hook herself up and then
watched her lay the eggs. In forty-fivs
seconds the joints were in their proper
places, she reached around and unlocked
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hole she had made in the soft earth, and
putting thatjoint in its place, she took the
twelfth, and, emptying that in the hole
proceeded in this way until every egg
was 'laid." While she was busy getting
out the last of the eggs quietly took out
the tenth joint again, and, it being full of
eggs, l put it back again in its proper place.
After she had emptied all her eggs in the
hole, she gave herself few shakes to see if
every thing was all right and snug, and,
crawling along little way, discovered
that the tenth joint was full of eggs. She
then unlocked it, and after emptying the
eggs in the hole she held the joint in her
mouth until she had covered up the eggs
with her tail, and then putting back the
joint in its place she swiftly moved off.
Once l caught two joint snakes, one
larger than the other, and, taking out one
joint from the largest snake turned him
loose. He at once hooked himself together
and started off, but soon found that some
thing was wrong, stopped and seemed
to be counting his joints. In little willis
he made up his mind that he was short one
joint, and, seeing the other snake lying
near in the grass, made rush for him, and
coiling himself around the middle of his
body, he soon unlocked a section, and then
unlocking himself just where | had taken
out joint proceeded to put in the joint be
had robbed his companion Of 1t did not
fit very well, being too small, and while he
was trying to make it work easy gave
his joint to the other smaller snake, who
at once hooked it in the place of his miss
ing joint. By this time the big snake hap.
pened to crawl along by the side of the
other, and he at once saw that he had one
joint bigger than the rest. Going up close
and examining it carefully, he proceeded
to take it out, and, after having removed
the little snakes joint put his own back in
its proper place. Then he took the little
snakes joint and laid it down close to the
other snake, and by various winning ways,
done they both moved off.
| might go on and give you dozens of 9TH
er instances of the intelligence of this in
teresting snake, but will content myself !
with one which happened last Fourth of /
July. / had been cutting wheat with q |
binder, and, the ground being wet in one
part of the field, the horses had sunk down 4
to their fetlocks in the soil, and, it being a /
heavy clay, the tracks they left were just /
like SO many clean-cut holes, with the sides 1
perfectly smooth and about eight inches
deep. A joint snake by some means had /
dropped his middle joint down one Of these
holes, and, as it was too deep for him to
reach down and get it with his mouth. be-
ing a very small snake, he seemed to be
worried about his loss l
stood watching him to see what the result
would be. He crawied about among the
stubble while, and seemed to be hunting
for something; presently he appeared to
ind what he wanted. for he began to gnaw
at small smooth straw about a foot long.
In seventy-two seconds he had separated it
from its root, and noticed he had left one
small piece of root attached to the straw.
which was turned up now slightly. making
a sort OF hook Bringing this straw to
the hole where his lost joint was he care
fully let it down in it, and after little
got the hook of the straw in
the eye of his joint; then pulling it up
with his head as far as be could reach, and
aolding what he gained with his tail, he
soon had his joint II his mouth and then
u its place.
Now, it is no use for any one to eoubt
my longer about there being such thing
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