Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1902-07-16
A A S
The Peculiar Trick Played Upon .
BiE Cobra for It's Health's
sake.

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The reptile house in the Geological
park at New York is an interesting
subject for a few hours inspection
to the average person, but doubly in
teresting is half an hours chat with
its keeper, Mr.. Ditmars, says a Trib-
une reporter. Perhaps nobody in the
city can equal him as an authority on
reptiles, especially snakes; certainly
nobody has had his practical expert
ence in raising them and observing
their habits.
1T is rather a strange fact" he
said. ''that the average duration Of a
snakes life is in a ratio to his size.
A garter snake dies from old age when
seven or eight years old, while a pyth-
on or boa constructor is still spry at
80 OF 40. Breeding snakes in captivity
has been accomplished with much sue
cess. Some Of the smaller species in
the park are in their third and fourth
generation.
"But the greatest difficulty we have
TO contend with is feeding those speci-
mems newly Installed after capture
from their natural state. Some are
so stubborn as to refuse food until
they starve to death, but we have
found a remedy for them. This was
first tried on Czarina, the 25-foot pyth-
on. She had positively refused to be
tempted by the most delicate morsels.
So six rabbits were killed and sewed
together with absorbent catgut. A
dozen men held the python, her mouth
was pried open with a stick, the six
rabbits were inserted and then
rammed down with a pole. A soft
leather collar was then placed about
her snakeship's neck to prevent her
disgorging the meal. Czarina is now
the star of the reptile house, and needs
no more such forcible invitations to
take food.
"The big cobra also gave rs some
trouble, but we cured her in an entire
ly different way. She would eat moth
ing but small MISUNDERSTANDING
else would do. For awhile we hui
mored her, but one day we took a dried
skin shed by a blacksnake and damned
it full Of meat, as though it were a
sausage. The cobra swallowed It,
never knowing the difference, and so
we solved the difficulty permanently.
"But all the reptiles do not fast.
The huge lizard known as the Ceylon-
csc monitor swallows a dozen hens
eggs whole without a pause. The
eggs may be heard blinking in his
stomach some time after he has swal-
lowed them.
"The five large alligators in the west
tank of the house ear dispose of 70
pounds Of meat in a meal. They are
fed on chickens, pigeons, rabbits, beef
and fish, thrown into their wide open
maws, whole and covered with hair
or feathers. All goes down without
mastication.
"The great Galapagos t%ortoises that
arrived last summer are not far be-
hind the alligators. Since they have
been here they have consumed over
5000 pounds of green food, in the
shape of lettuce, cabbage, squash,
pumpkins and melons. The largest of
them, with the suggestive name of
Buster, weighs $40 pounds. In the
summer he could eat two huge water
melons at a meal, leaving nothing but
the seeds. Sometimes these creatures
try to make us believe that they are
fighters. They butt at each other,
snort and snap most ferociously, and
sometimes squeal like pigs. They are
also able to startle the bystanders
with a sound resembling a bugle call,
and seem to wink at each other when
they brighten small children"