Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1910-02-03
GREAT SNAKES THERE
LIZARDS OF ALL TYPES AND DE-
GREES OF SAFETY AND
EDIBLENESS.

from which l shall not recover for
a long time. AS l stepped out of
bed I felt squirming snake under
my feet and jumped back for fear it
was one of the deadly poisonous rep
tiles which infest the islands. AS I
looked over the side of the bed I saw
a large python make it's way through
hole in the wall at one side of the
room. called the servants and told
them to find the snake and kill it, but
they informed me it was tame and
was kept to catch the rats. l saw it
frequently during the morning, as it
seemed to be busy hunting for some
thing to eat, and I had ample oppor-
tunity to examine it closely. 1t was
about ten feet long and has been kept
about the place for several years.
Many of these pythons are tanned by
natives who find them useful and
harmless.
In the woods, however, they are
not SO harmless. They have been
known to attain great size, and at
tack and kill human beings. These
large snakes live on deer, wild hogs
and monkeys. They have dens in
piles of rocks, called by natives their
houses, and after gorging themselves
they retire to these dens until the
process of digestion is completed.
Natives tell tales of enormous snakes
which they have seen and frequently
you will hear of pythons fifty feet
long. But the largest ever captured
by a scientific expedition was but
twenty-five feet, eight inches long.
This is an enormous snake, and un-
doubtedly scraed native would
think he was fifty feet long. rhe py-
thons are sometimes destructive to
calves and inflict much damage to
owners of cattle. g<s-s4e
There are many venomous snakes
on the islands, and on one little is
land Lubang the mortality from
snake bites every year is said to be
enormous. There are many cobras
and coral snakes, but the one most
feared by the natives is the rice
leaf snake which is exceeding vono-
nous and its bite is quickly mortal.
There are several harmless green
snakes, which are also called rice
leaf snakes, and natives say they
are all poisonous.
The most interesting form of rep
lillian life here is the little singing
lizard, or ghecho. 1t is very small
and may be seen at all times run
ming about the halls of the house,
catching flies and other insects. 1t
gives chirping cry, much like that
of a young bird. There is a large
specie of ghecho which is sluggish
and frequently falls from ceiling to
floor. 1t has a loud cry which is
very annoying at night, especially
when it sounds from the interior Of
hollow bamboo, which accentu-
ates the noise.
Lizards are of many kinds. The
iguana grows very large, sometimes
being five feet long. One species
is edible, it's flesh equalling that Of
chicken. There are also many fly
ing lizards with a mem mbrane be-
tween the hind and fore legs, much
like the membrane of a squirrel.
Their color is like that of the trees
which they inhabit, and they can
scarcely be seen until they suddenly
spread their membrane and dart
from one tree to another, when the
assume vivid hue which make them
noticeable. When they alight they
seem to disappear miraculously as
as the assume the color Of the bark
on which they rest. These lizards,
like all other, are harmless, out the
large gheckos will bite viciously at
anything placed near them when
they cannot escape by running away.
The rivers abound in crocodiles
and in some streams they are very
dangerous. In many of the streams
infested with them natives bathe
fearlessly, and they say that until
the crocodiles taste human flesh they
are not dangerous: Some of the cro-
coolies have been found eighteen feet
long, and there are reports Of others
which have exceeded thirty feet. but
doubt is cast on these measurements.
There are numerous frogs. espec-
tally n Manila, where their noise
just before a storm is so terrific as
to drown all other sounds. I sat on
the portico of the hotel one night
and could scarcely distinguish the
band playing on the Escolta on ac-
count Of the noise Of the frogs In the
pools and fountains on the street.