The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-21

observing in close proximity his meth
DDS of moving. ! sat at the table with
the cage upon 1t within few inches
of my face, and could watch narrowly
every muscle in play The rib motion
was what / particularly desired to un-
derstand, and he gave me opportunity
for studying it at this very close range.
For, although when first put in the cage
he coiled himself for defense and COM
menced putting loudly, still he soon lost
apprehension of danger. for l sat as
motionless as death so as not to frighten
him.
At first he lay quiet and watched me.
Then he began slowly moving about
in his prison, seeking for means of es-
cape. He went cautiously all over the
cage. examining with his inquisitive
tongue the front the back and the
sides, searching for some hole or crew.
ice sometimes he would reach up to
feel along the top, and sometimes he
would try to climb against the glass of
the front. and 1t was those times I
could best see the curious rib motion
and was enabled to understand how it
was made to prope him.
If anyone will take up dead snake
and examine it he will find that while
his back is covered with small scales
its whole neither surface is crossed by
great singleplate scales extending right
across from side to side. Now, for each
of these ventral plates, as they are
called. the puff adder had a correspond
ing pair of ribs fastened by muscles
one to each of it's ends. So, therefore,
when he wished to move ventral plate
he simply lifted it forward by means of
the two ribs attached to its ends. Then
he would move the next pair of ribs
with their plate and then the next with
theirs, and so on, each pair of ribs
carrying on its proper ventral plate
Thus each ventral plate beneath
snake is, as it We're, the sole of foot,
and its attached pair Of ribs act togeth-
er as a double leg to move it.
The wavelike motion apparent on the
outside of my puff adders body was
caused by the ribs being moved in sue
cession beneath the skin, beginning
with the first pair moving with their plate
then the next with theirs. and so on
until the wave of movements had
passed down the whole length of his
body.
But wave would succeed wave, for
before the first wave of movement
would reach the ribs near the tail an
other fresh wave would have started to
pass downward from the neck. so that
the undulatory motion was continuous
and successive, each wave of plates
moving along beneath him and follow
ing another, the whole series of move
ments carrying him forward smoothly,
slowly, deliberately and in line as
perfectly straight as if traced by a
ruler.
This walking movement is not Pc
culiar to the puff adder alone, for it is
often to be seen in all thick, heavy
bodied snakes, and the shorter and
thicker they are the more apt they are
to progress by rib motion. When they
wish to hurry they stop the rib motion
and commence to glide as other snakes
do.
In 1891 l had a boa constructor III feet
long which used often to walk thus in
a perfectly direct line, and, indeed, it
was at such a time while he was walk
ing with his ribs for legs that l meas
ured him. for at no other time could I
get him Strengthened out.
This walking is the common meth
cd of slow movement with all the
heavy bodied vipers. The hog-nose
snake also progresses in this way. but
all of them will take up the quicker
gliding method of travelling when
alarmed or unduly excited.
The long, thin snakes rarely or never
use the rib movement. but seem to con-
fine themselves almost entirely to Gid
ing. Therefore, When we seek the track
of a snake crossingDover a dusty road,
we can hazard a guess whether it was
a venomous or harmless snake that
made it. If the track be almost
straight. it was caused most likely by
a copperhead or rattlesnake, walking
at leisure If the track be winding a
harmless snake has probably crossed
over there, progressing by his usual
method of gliding.-Boston Globe.