The Washington times., 1901-08-25
THE SNAKE And HIS MENU.
Cannibalistic Taste of the Reptiles
Hard to Satisfy.
Thousands of Small Members of the
Species Raised mt the New York
Zoo and Fed to the boa Constrfc-
tOrs-Dfet of the Deadly Cobra.

| Thousands of Small Members of the
| Species Raised mt the New York
Zoo and Fed to the Boa Constrfc-
tors-Diet of the Deadly Cobra.
In the reptile house in Geological Park,
/ up in the woods of the Bronx, among the
| huge glass cages where giant boa constric-
| tors lie coiled, wherein the lazy diamond
backed RATHER giides inquisitively toward
the glass which separates him from the
| visitor, and where thousands of smaller
snakes hang entwined in uncanny worm
like knots in the limbs of cage trees, there
| is many gruesome happening which a
visitor to the house is not allowed to see.
| Only during certain hours of the day
usually between a. m. and sunsets the
public admitted to the house. Thousands
of sightseers come on pleasant days to
look at the marvellous collection of snakes
Interesting as the sight is during these
visiting hours, 1t is really less SO than at
other hours when visitors are not ad-
mitted. When the snakes are on view to
the public they are groomed, as 1t were.
to show off, and are on their good be-
havior.
But once the doors are closed and the
keepers are alone with the uncanny rep
tiles; when Curator Ditmars opens the
glass door of the cabinet that contains his
| surgical implements, and prepares for
operations that are ever required for the
good of one or another of the squirmy in
mates. then, unless interest overcomes re-
pulsion, the stranger who as special
favor has gained admittance, longs for
the open air. 1.nd this is one reason why
the house is not always open to the pub
lic
But 1t Is not only the occasional tooth
which must be drawn from the jaw OF
boa constructor, or the occasional growth
which must be removed from the mouth
of the copperhead the rattler, or the moe
casin, which is gruesome; the very feed
ing Of the animals is an uncanny thing to
contemplate, especially when it comes to
seeing them fed with their own kind.
Snakes are cannibalistic, Those used for
feeding the big fellows are all raised at
the reptile house. except such as are
added to the commissary department by
men who hunt the reptiles in the woods of
the park itself. Over 400 garter snakes
are now being raised by Curator Ditmars
for the sole purpose Of multiplying and
furnishing food for the long, thin outlets
of the larger snakes. OF the 400 snakes
intended for breeding food for the big
fellows, about 200 may be counted upon
as adding from As to AZ young snakes to
the collection each year. A total of over
5000 garter snakes is thus secured as food
for the big rare snakes, in whom life must
be kept at any cost or sacrifice This to-
tai does not include several thousand
snakes of other varieties that are
brought into the house by the hunters
who catch them in the woods Of the park.
Foremost among the snakes requiring
food of its own kind is the monster king
cobra. Once /. week a five or six-foot
blacksnake Is procured, and, after being
subjected to e peculiar process. is fed to
to cobra. The cobra will eat only large
snakes, and the larger they are the better
she likes them. No blacksnake large
enough to suit the appetite of her impe-
rial highness las ever been found. If she
had her own way about things, every
snake in the house, including several of
the boa constructors. would long ago have
wandered down the throat of this ire
mendous snake. Already her appetite has
made blacksnakes scarce in the park, and
when 1t is impossible to catch one of these
racers 1t is necessary to buy one in
the open market, unless, as is often the
case. some admirer of the cobra who
knows of her tastes presents her with
a meal in the shape of blacksnake.
So fastidious Is the appetite OF the
cobra that II the blacksnake is not to
her liking as far as size is concerned, she
will not touch it. 1t is here that the
peculiar process referred to takes place.
This consists in making the snake think
that she is getting more than she really
is After the blacksnake intended for her
meal is killed, dozen or more frogs are
killed and stuffed down the dead snake SO
as to make it bulge out in all directions
and appear large. In this state the black
snake looks as II 1t were a huge stuffed
stocking. and is of a girth which seems
as IL 1t were several times the diameter
of the throat of the reptile for whom IL
is intended. The stuffing of the black
snake is done for two reasons. In the
first place. even the largest sized black
snake is not large enough in its natural
state to tempt the cobra to eat. and
secondly, by making a fros-pili out of
the blacksnake, the frogs. which other
wise the cobra would disdain, are gotten
into the reptile to furnish nourishment,
whether the cobra likes it or not.
Every conceivable trick has been tried
by Curator Ditmars to tempt the cobra to
eat things other than blacksnakes. but so
far without success Once pair Of dead
blacksnake to see if it would not be pos
sible to swin6le little variety down into
the cobra, but the snake discovered the
deception and bit off the string which
fastened the rats to her meal.
The garter snakes are used for food
purposes for snakes not quite so fastidi-
GUS in their tastes as is the cobra.
1t is not only in the keeping alive of rare
apd delicate snakes that the reptile house
has been particularly fortunate. Success
has been met as well in the breeding of
the reptiles.
Snakes, according to Curator Ditmars,
NAV be divided into two classes those
that are Matched from the egg and those
that are born alive. Usually those that
are Matched from eggs are of the harm
less variety And here nature has made
a wise provision. Harmless snakes null
tiply at the rate of from forty to eighty
five in a year. while the venomous ones
seldom arrive with more than six to ten
in a brood. A young venomous snake is
fully able to care for itself the instant 1t
is in the world. Its poison arrives with
1t, and 1t needs no parental care.
The fact that young venomous snakes
are as dangerous as their parents was ac-
cidentally proved in the reptile house.
one of the first brood of snakes to be
added to the collection was of cotton
mouthed moccasins, seven in number. AS
is generally known. the moccasin is one
of the most poisonous snakes loose. Next
to the cage where the moccasins were
born lived a harmless garter snake. One
night the newly arrived moccasins
crawled through the fine wire screen that
divided the two cages. They made them