The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-02-21

called my attention to them We were walking slowly, on the lookout for any thing in the way of lizard or snake, when suddenly my guide pointed to a bush directly in front of me.
 Nothing there, I said.
 But yes,' he replied, and then he walked up to the bush and picked off this chameleon.
 He took down jar containing one of the largest of the specimens and held 1t to the light for inspection.
 Even after I saw him take it from the bush I could not find the others that were there till he showed me just where to look to see them. and then I had to laugh to myself to think how clever the chameleons were in hiding themselves all the time they remained in plain view.
 We secured five from that bush. and We got others from other places during that expedition. But soon I became ac- customed to looking for them and I could see them as quickly as my guide.
 .The true chameleon comes only from Africa. There are no others"
 In the same cabinet with the chamele- ons were the horned toads, which arn't toads at all, but lizards, and the bull lizard, or collared lizard, scientists call it. because of the wide black band around it's neck, the shyest and quickest of all that shy and agile species.
 Tt is impossible for one person alone to catch a collared lizard" said MT. Hur- ter. Ut is necessary for one to attract his attention in front and while he Is watching that person another creeps up and grabs him from behind. You gen. orally have to grab ground and every thing in his neighborhood when you cap ture him. for he moves so quickly that you cannot be particular about what you get along with him.
 sIn capturing lizards of almost any ic htr far satisfactory shoot them with No. P shot. They are usually in groups, and you very rarely injure all your specimens, even If you are so unfortunate as to injure some or them.
 That specimen is one of the lizards which we have here in Missouri. This section is believed to be the northern and eastern limit of territory where lizards are found and until found the collared lizard in Jefferson county, near Pevely. IL vas believed they did not live further east than the Verdigris river, in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory The col Jared lizard is the largest lizard we have here, but there are other lizards found in Missouri, many of them very inter- esting.'
 Terror of the Southwest.
 In another case were several jars con- taining Gila monsters, the only poisonous lizard known that terror of the south west, whose bite is supposed to be and in most cases is fatal. One of the largest of these thing fully 15 inches long, MT. Hurter took down for inspection.
 That" said he, q captured near Tuc- son, Ariz., and if was not immune to poison it would have been the death of !. me. I was very careful in handling 1t, but in spite of all my precautions it bit me through the hand But it didn't kill me. I am here' His eyes twinkled as he said it.
 q always considered myself immune from snake venom, for I have been bit- ten several times by rattlesnakes and other poisonous snakes and have never suffered any lasting harm from the poi son: but I did fear sne ella monster before was bitten. do not now.
 q was in Arizona again afterward, and was asked to relate my experience to some gentlemen who were making a study of the Gila monster, in the hope of discovering an antidote for the poi son, but I could not tell them why the poison did not affect me more. My arm swelled very badly the first day and gave me much pain but the second day 1t became normal again. and I had no more trouble from the poison.''
 Then MT. Hurter told all sorts of in- teresting things about snakes. how few of them are really poisonous and how the most dreaded snakes. like the boa constructor and the great python of the Philippines, are harmless except in their tremendous strength. The python grows to length of 90 feet and it's body is as thick as the thigh of a man. When It wraps itself around a man or an animai md begins to bring it's powerful muscles into play there is asolutely no hope for. the victim.
 The large constrictors are as quick in their movements as the smaller ones and one of the enormous anacondas of the Amazon region can enfold man as sud- denly as one of the little Missouri black snakes lays hold of a tiny field mouse.
 Missouri abounds in snakes, Mir Hurter declared, but of them all only two or three are to be dreaded by man. Several kinds of rattlesnakes are found in this state, and 1t was in showing these that he explained why the age of a rattle snake cannot be determined by the num- Der of it's rattles. The rattles are very frail, he said, and very loosely attached to the tail, and any slight accident serves to separate them from the snake.
 RattIes Deceptive.
 You will often find that the largest rattlesnake has the fewest number of rattles'' said MT. Hurter That is be- cause he has lost his first set and is growing some new ones. In many cases the older the snake the fewer the rat ties, because the greater the number of chances of losing his first ones. You always find the button on the large rat tlesnakes because that is attached to the vertebrae and reappears when the new rattles begin to form.'
 The most dangerous snake in Missouri, he said is the cotton-mouth, so called be- cause it's mouth is perfectly white inside, and when 1t is opened, as it always is, the moment the snake Is alarmed, 1t seems to be full of raw cotton. This snake is found all through the Ozarks, and specimens of it have been taken as far north as Jefferson county.
 There are only eight poisonous snakes in America, and the proportion of poison- ous snakes everywhere, except in Aus tralia, is one to four. In Australia, how ever, the proportion is reversed, and three-fourths of the snakes found in that country are poisonous.
 Of all the hundreds of snakes Mir. Hurter displayed, the most interesting was the co-called glass snake, which isn't snake at all. but lizard. It has rudimentary feet that to the unS- initiated look like little warts on the under side of the body, and It's head 10 so different from that of the usual snake and so similar to that of the common lizard that it Is plain the glass snake is, in head at least, a near relative to the lizard.
 The glass snake and the dos cabesas are really retrogressions. having lost their legs through disuse. The uueer breaks all to pieces the minute you s+ nH,f tr tt. 4n;I