The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-10-22
SERPENTS FOR THE zoo.
HOW THEY ARE OBTAINED FOR
CINoINNATpS MENAGERIE.
A Wonderful Collection Of Poisonous
Lizards and Things That Crawl
--ReDtiIes From Many CIimes

! LiLuFuS anu lhluRb lNHb OEdWt /
Reptiles From Many Chimes.
Superintendent Stephan, of the Gin
| cinnati Geological Garden, told Times
| Star reporter that he had an order placed
! for about three dozen snakes, to get there
by next spring. "You see," said Mr..
Stephan, tive have to order that sort Of
thing about six months ahead of the timo
we want them. The usual way they are
| gotten is through the captains of the
steamers plying between the countries
from which we want them and Hamburg
or New York. These captains get them
for mere song and sell them either to
| the animal dealers or direct to the shows
and gardens. Yes, these shows use a
good number of them. They generally
handle them good deal, and handling is
bad for snakes, especially just after
they've been fed; it makes them sick.
Snakes have to have plenty of time to
digest. A show considers itself lucky if
it keeps snake through one season,
while we keep them here ten or eleven
years. But come and take look at the
snakes we have" And he led the way to
corner of the carnivora building, where,
in five or six glass cases, their snakeships
were confined.
"Here are some young tree boas from
Cuba. They are 30 called because they
usually are found on trees. These are
little fellows, being only five or six feet
long and about four inches in circumfer-
ence. Like the boa-constrictor, they
kill everything they eat by crushing it.
No, they don't do any charming. The
charming business is a-what do you
newspaper men call it--'a fake You
would be surprised at the wonderful
power these snakes have in their folds.
Why, when we used that large case for
the snakes we had a tree in there. One
day wanted to get python that was
coiled around tree, so | unwrapped it
little and then tried to pull it off. l
hung my full weight-about 175 pounds
ON it, and still couldn't get it off.
Finally had to get one of the men to
come and help me, and the two of us sue
ceeded in getting it off.
"Thesc boas here are young fellows,
but they can swallow good sized rab-
bit without Inconvenience. We feed
them atirreguar times; whenever they'll
eat. I've known snakes to go five months
without eating. A snake in good con-
dition should eat once week. That is
the hardest thing about ecclimating n
snake. If you get four or five snakes out
OF lot of ten or twelve to eat you are
pretty lucky. Often they won't feed at
all aud just starve themselves to death.
We feed these boas on rats, rabbits,
guinea pigs and pigeons. When they
get tired of one we feed them the other
for awhile.
"To return to our tree boas. They get
to be sixteen or seventeen feet long when
they are full grown. There's an old fell
low in that cage at the end. He is about
eleven feet long. The young boas are
worth from $45 to $50 each; for that old
fellow we wouldn't take $75. He's ac-
climated and we've had him about eleven
years, so we've grown to like him. That
big fellow in black and gray that shares
his cage is python from Africa. He's
worth about 500. Yes, they seem rather
sleepy, as you say. Snakes always lie
torpid that way unless they are hungry.
Then they uncoil and begin to move
about. That's the way we tell when to
feed them. No, they don't hibernate in.
winter here. You see the temperature
ALWAYS remains the same in those glass
cases, and they don't feel the changes of
the seasons.
"That cage there contains blacksnakes
and house snakes. They are found around
houses and barns, and are good things to
keen mice away. We feed them on toads,
mice and sparrows. They are about five
or six feet long. They like to fight, es-
pecially when we put a new snake in.
Sometimes they get so mixed up they are
lust like tangled lot of string, and we
have to take them and untwist them. Oh,
YES, we take them in our hands; there's
no danger when you know how to handle
them.
"That yellow and black fellow is a
Western 'rattler.' Those little green
ones with him are common garter
snakes. No, they're not dangerous. We
put them in with the rattler because he
won't bother them. The blacksnakes
would eat them up. The pink and black
lizard like animal is a Gila monster. He
is really poisonous lizard. He is found
only in Arizona, at the bottom Of the
canons there, where the sun seldom gets
at him. They say that sunlight kills the
monster. l know we had one in cage
with a lot of green lizards, which needed
sun, and told a boy to set the cage out
in the sun. When we came to look at
our monster we found him dead. don't
know whether it was the sunlight that
did it OF not, but he seemed in perfect
health before that. In its native element
it lives on insects, and we try to supply
that class of food by the use of raw eggs,
lie eats about three a week. We just
crack the end of the shell and he sucks
the egg out. There are but few of them
in captivity, aud in the European gar
dens they are looked upon as very rare. "
A New Submarine Vessel.
! II IL pynpptp1 that "A submarine vesseI