The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-05

thin snakes do, but hung perpendicularly
from my band. My fingers got 50 tired
from keeping him grasped in one position,
for had to walk some miles that
thought several times that l should have
to let him 60 AT last however, / arriv-
ed safely home, and got him into his cage,
dropping him in tail first-a very danger
Gus proceeding, which in my imperfect
knowlege of snakes at the time, might
easily have cost me my life.
once in the cage-a large one with the
entire front of glass-I had every chance
of observing in close proximity his meth
DDS of moving. l sat at the table with the
cage upon it within a few inches of my
face, and could watch narrowly every
muscle in play. The rib-motion was what
l particularly desired to understand, and
ne gave me opportunity for studying it
at this very close range. For, although
when first put in the cage he coiled him
self for defense and commenced putting
loudly, still he soon lost apprehension of
danger, for I sat as motionless as death
so as not to brighten him. AZ first he lay
quiet and watched me. Then he began
slowly moving about in his prison, seek
ing for means of escape. He went eau
tiously all over the cage. examining with
his inquisitive tongue the front, the back
and the sides. searching for some hole or
crevice. Sometimes he would reach up to
feel along the top, and sometimes he would
try TO climb against the glass of the front;
and it was al those times l could best see
the curious rib-moton and was enabled to
understand how it was made to propel
him.
Science of Snake Walking.
If any one will take up a dead snake
and examine It, he viii find that while
its back is covered with small scales it's
whole neither surface is crossed by great
single plate-like scales extending right
across from side to side. Now, for each
of these ventral plates, as they are called,
the puff-adder had a corresponding pair
or ribs fastened by muscles one TO each of
Its ends. So therefore, when he wished to
move a ventral plate he simply lifted it
forward by means of the two ribs at
tached 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 ven
trail plate Thus each ventral plate be
meath snake Is, as it were, the sole OF
foot. and its attached pair of ribs act to-
| gether as a double leg TO move it.
The waVe-lilxe motion apparent on the
outside of my puff-adder's body was caus-
ed by the ribs being moved in succession
| beneath the skin beginning with the first
| pair moving with their plate then the
| next with theirs. and so on until the wave
of movement had passed down the whole
| length of his body But wave would sue
coed wave for before the first wave Of
movement would reach the ribs near The
tail, another fresh wave would have start
| ed to pass downwards from the neck, so
| that the undulatory motion was continuous
| and successive, each wave of plates NOV
| ing along beneath him and following an
| other, the whole series of movements car
rying him forwards smoothly, slowly, de-
hberately and in a line as perfectly straight
as if traced by a ruler. This walking
movement is not peculiar 10 the puff-ad-
| der alone, for it is often to be seen in oil
thick heavy bodied snakes, and the short
er and thicker they are. the more apt they
are to progress by rib-motion. When they
wish to hurry they stop the rib-motion aud
commence TO glide as other snakes do
| In 1891 l had a boa-conStrictor of ten
feet long, which used often to walk thus
in a perfectly direct line, and indeed il
| was at such a time while he was walking
with his ribs for legs that I measured
him, for al no other time could l get him
| Strengthened out
Most VenOmOus Snakes walk.
This rib-walking is the common method
of slow movements 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 otherwise
unduy excited. The Ions, thin snakes
! rarely or never use the rib movement. but
seem to confiue themselves almost entirely
to gliding. Therefore, when we see the
track of a snake crossing over a dusty
road we can hazard a guess whether II is
a venomous or a harmless snake, that
made IL.