The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-02-07
SOME FACTS ABOUT SNAKES.
Funniest Serpent in the world-How
Snake Skeletons are Prepared.

FUNNIEST serpent In the World-HOW
Snake Skeletons are Prepared.
From the Washington Star.
"The funniest snake I know anything
about is one found In Africa, which lives
upon eggs" said Osteologist Lucas to Star
| reporter. sit has a curious projection
downward from its backbone, just behind
the head, which is like tooth. the ex-
tremity being actually tipped with enamel
This tooth-like appendage has a most i'm
portant function with relation TO the
creatures method Of getting a living, and
it would be difficult to find more astonish-
ing illustration in nature of the adaptation
of structure to necessity
when this snake swallows an egg the
latter is passed down through the gullet
until 1t encounters the sharp tooth have
| spoken of, which breaks the shell Thus
not onlyis the food rendered ready for i'm
mediate digestion, but no portion of the
| fluid contents is lost, as would be the case
| If the snake were obliged to bite into the
| egg with its mouth fangs
'It seems surprising how many snakes
are able to swallow animals bigger than
| their own diameter, until it is considered
how particularly well nature has adapted to
the purpose the structure Of their jaws. The
lower Jawbone, instead Of being in a single
piece, is merely connected in front by an
elastic ligament, so that the two halves are
capable of great extension. Again, the
| halves of the lower jawbone are attached
to the skull very far back, SO the animal
can make an enormous gap.
TO properly prepare the skeleton of q
| snake is one of the most difficult pieces of
| work in my line of business. Serpents of
all sorts come to the Smithsonian in two
| shapes. The smaller ones are usually in
alcohol, while the big fellows are apt TO be
| simply dried and poisoned by soaking in an
arsenical solution. In the preparation of a
specimen very sharp and delicate scissors
are employed, with forceps to supplement-
them, the flesh being carefully removed
SO far as is practicable with these
instruments Then recourse must
be had to scraping of the bones
until they are perfectly clean. Some
times the skeleton is soaked in an acid
preparation for the purpose, but this de-
stroys the ligaments, and IL is not easy to
put all the parts together again rightly. In
the preparation OF delicate skeletons the
| great thing is patience. There are two very
| finely prepared skeletons of big snakes in
the national museum, and in making them
ready for exhibition the utmost pains were
| taken to preserve the cartilaginous
extremities of the ribs, which, with
ordinary treatment, are lost Without
these little pieces of cartilage the serpepu's
skeleton can hardly be said to be complete,
inasmuch as they are the feet upon
which the reptile walks, as it were. In
fact, snake walks on the ends of its ribs
| and in that manner achieves locomotion.
Some big serpents. however. like the boas
and pythons. really have hind legs, though
they are quite documentary. Pythons, you
know, are constructors, crushing their prey
in their folds. They have no poison glands,
but they can bite terrifically with their
many teeth, which turn inward like hooks,
SO that person once seized would have
little chance of disengaging himself save by
chopping off the head Of the animal"