The weekly herald. [volume] (Amarillo, Tex.) 1906-19??, 1908-11-12

The pets" accompanying Ralston
in his Journeys over the world con-
sist Of collection Of rattlers, spread
ing adders, moccasins, coach whips,
bull snakes, one indigo or blue go
pher, the latter found along the
Texas Mexican border, and which,
while non-polsonous, is a cannibal
species of the snake family, In that
it feeds on other snakes, always be-
ing careful not 70 attack a reptile
larger than itself. In addition TO
the snakes the happy family is made
up OF tarantulas, gila monsters, one
large Brazilian iguana Oizard) four
feet long, one " rhinocerous "igua-
ma four and a half feet long from
Africa, both animals being non-pois-
onous, fruit eating and used for
food by the natives Of their respec-
tive countries And lat and great
est in Ralston's collection is q no
BILE" species OF black swamp python
Of Africa, which measures something
like twenty feet and weighs 1910
pounds.
When Ralston invited a represen'
tative OF the Daily Panhandle to in
spect his pets he asked the news
paper man to climb int othe little
tightly covered wagon from 4 real
door, and when both were inside t.
natural history expert closed tht
door with a snap and invited tht
scribe TO a seat beside a covered
box Then b., the aforesaid exper
raised the lid OF the box and there
within ten inches OF the writer
nose recllned and coiled snake
twenty feet long with shining eye
and a tongue doing stunts in ant
out OF hair-raising looking mouth
The Daily Panhandle man did no
stampede, for the very good reasol
that no way OF escape was at hand
as the door was locked. However
fears were soon dispelled by the al
fectionate way in which Ralston an
his pet treated each other.
This particular species Of bl
snake is non-poisonous; 1t is OF tn
constructor family, and kills its pre-
by squeezing it to death. A hal
hour with Ralston in his wagon, an
seeing him handle all of these rep
tiles, poisonous and non-polsonous
including a big black tarantula wit
vicious fangs in place, was an In
teresting experience. Ralston, In hi
review of reptile life on the Panhar
die spoke as follows
There is only one poisonous spe
ces of snake in the North Panhandl
of Texas and in that the populatio
Of shis rich country should congrat
ulate themselves, and that species
the rattler, of which there are tw
varieties, the big diamond back an
the Yrairie rattler.
There are seven varieties o
snakes, all told, on the Panhandle
They are: rather coach whiI
spreading adder, bull snake, waite
moccasin, garter snake (known q
the ribbon snake) and the snok
known by the people as the blac
chicken snake. None of these, e>
cept the RATHER, is poisonous, nc
even the spreading adder, which
so much feared by the uninitiatet
"Of the lizards on the Panhandl
you have five species, known as 10
lows: the 'scaly' lizard, the 'thre
: line lizard three yellow lines dow
! its kack) the Five line lizard civ
lines down its back), the mountai
boomer, which finds its habitat
canyons and rough country, the"wi
ter dog lizard Csalamander) and tn
! swift, a brown species.
Then in addition to the foreg'
ing reptile species you have tn
horned toad harmless end the mo-
perfectly behaved little gentleman
1 reptile that ever snapped a fly. "
all love the horned toed, with i
pretty polkadot markinsseunder I
BODY and with its gentle eyes lool
\ ing love at you.
"of the butterfly life on the Pa
handle there is a scant supply, wi
4 vegetation being too scarce to SUI
port this insect liza,