The Washington herald., 1911-05-28

Then again, its gail.bladder, where the bile
is kept till wanted, instead Of being against
to be, is a long way off, with pipe laid on
TO it; otherwise, when frog. or rat, or rab-
the gallbladder would be jammed against the
liver and all the bile wasted.
In the same way, the two halves of its
lower jaw are loosely tied together instead of
being solid, and its face bones work on hinges;
it has no breast bone to fasten it's ribs down,
nor any solid girdle. of shoulder bones, such
as even those lizards have which are desti.
have said, one lung seems completely rubbed
out.all apparently adapted expressly and sole
~ for the convenience of its particular mode
Of feeding.
Sea snakes are built on the same principle,
but their lung is much more developed, and
they have little shutters or valves over their
nostrils, which are closed under water
l can't tell you how long sea serpent can
remain below the surface probably for many
hours no., Independently Of their airtank the
lows them to do without oxygen for very
long time-it would be more correct to say,
allows them to make use Of what oxygen they
may have very slowly and economically, so
snakes can keep their heads under water for
hours. as you may see any day at the ZOO.
If you take any ordinary snake, you will
see that the plates or scales of the under
part OF the body generally of lighter color
than the rest, often white) are much larger
than those above, being. in fact, broad bands
which extend transversely from the tips of
the ribs on one side to those on the other
These great scales serve as feet when it walks,
as 1T does, on the points of its ribs.
Sea snakes, and some few species of land
snakes which burrow in the earth, have none
OF these plates underneath; but the sea snakes,
on the contrary, are pinched or ridged into
sort OF keel, which steadies them in swim
.InU In as.A- -1EA A 4 n A-.t
their swimming is rather wriggly business,
owing to their means of propulsion being very
inefficient compared, to their length Of Body.
They have small. short tongues, but are not
furnished with that little hole in the upper
lip which enables most snakes to put out their
tongues while their mouths are shut. Like
all the rest, their tongues are bifid-split or
double at the tip-and some of them possess
two tiny openings, one on each side. through
which the points can just .protrude. This
does not seem q very useful or ornamental
sort OF thing. but no doubt it is all right.
There are some people who do not see very
well unless they wear green spectacles, and
these sea snakes .are something like them.
green layer of sea water, their sight is good
enough, but on the surface, or when drawn
out, they are dazed by the glare, and bite and
strike wildly, without apparently being able
to take aim at anything.
1t is really very remarkable that folks are
not more generally acquainted with these crea.
lures, seeing that there is such variety of
them. Some kinds grow to ten or twelve
feet or perhaps more, and thick as a mans
wrist, though most Of them range from two
to four or five feet.
Some time ago there was a great discussion
going on in the newspapers as to which was
the largest poisonous snake known. One per-
son declared it was the South American bush
master; another stood up for the curu-cucu of
Brazil; third put in a claim for the great
African vipers,, as thick an the calf of your
lcg while fourth eontended that the hama
dryad Of the East Indies, a snake hooded like
the cobra, growing to eleven feet, was the
longest il not the biggest of all. Nobody
seemed to remember the sea serpent, 90 at
last l wrote letter and set HIM up as my
candidate for the honor in question.
The name Of that Brazilian snake, curu-
cucu, is pronounced "sooroo-coocoo." You
viii observe that it is word of fous sylla-
bles, spelled with three letters
Very venomous are all the sea snakes, with
out exception. In one species the poison
glands extend from the mouth right down the
throat and into the stomach
When we look into q poisonous snakes
mouth we see that its two long front teeth. or
fangs, which inject the deadly fluid, are either
fixed and upright, or capable of being folded
back on sort of hinge when not in use,
and this popularity serves to divide all venom.
bearing serpents into two distinct. groues
The hydrophidae, or sea serpents, belong Co
the first division--those with hxed Tfsngs ike
the cobras and coral snakes and the aforesaid
hamadryad; but their fangs are exceedingly
short and small, and have a very shallow