The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-27

retgning and unjust prejudice that can
be shattered by the explosion Of a long
train of erroneous theories. Snakes
truly are clean, graceful and wonder
ful. My home has always been the
headquarters OF an extensive collection
or snakes, large and small, both in
nocuouS and venomous Individual
care of restricted numbers of varied
species ELECTED their strange habits
and these when fully comprehended
have enabled me to handle successfully
hundreds of serpents at the splendid
reptile house of the park. AS COM
pared with the closely allied forms. the
lizards, snakes exhibit even greater
variability of form Take, for instance,
twenty-five foot python weighing
500 pounds and compare 1t with n ma
tuie specimen of burrowing snake but
five or six inches long and not thicker
-. than a goose quill. Or place side by
side a squatty. fiat headed viper and
an enormously elongated tree snake.
one secreting itself by throwing sand
| over its back and the other darling
away with the speed OF an arrow
! Snakes, after all, are not so commonly
| seen, as the greater number lead a Sc
cretive life, and the feeding habits of
! them all induce them to seek seclusion
during the process of the assimilation
OF food. Snakes range far northward
into the temperate regions. The num-
Der of species Is especially high In the
| tropics, thence decreasing north or
south of the equator.
THE various species of rattle
snakes are confined to the New
/ World. and the majority of them
about nineteen species. TO the
| United States and northern Mex
leo. The sub-family OF cobras is rep
resented in the New World by the sin
gle genus Elpas, of which there are
| about twenty-six species. two species
in the southern United States and the
others distributed further south. They
are not so highly organized as the CO.
bras, the most highly organized of all
serpents, being rather addicted to a
burrowing life. Although poisonous
snakes are common enough in many
parts OF the world, the danger from
them is not nearly so great as imag-
! ined. In India, where IA large part OF
the population goes bare legged, the
estimated number of human lives lost
each year is about 10000. Conditions
are very different in the United States,
though the various species OF rattle
snakes, the copperhead and the for
midable water moccasin, TEEN over
vast areas. Records OF snake bites are
exceedingly rare in North America.
Madagascar is the only large country
In warm or temperate ATTITUDES en-
| 80
Snakes Eyes Hypnotic.
That the true function OF the snake
| In nature is to keep down an excess OF
predatory insects. mammals, birds and
other reptiles. is shown in its structure
| by which it Is able to swallow its prey
whole and speedily. This fact alone
should answer all of the snakes critics
| No fair minded person can look this
fact or process in the face and say that
a snake was Created for any other
purpose or that its form or method
of locomotion was intended for any
other purpose but escape from its
enemies and pursuit of predatory
creatures which, by over increase In
numbers, would consume and destroy
the food supplies of the world. In
swallowing rodents or other carriers OF
disease the snake itself often perishes
because of infection. Ditmars says:
THE lower jaw Is composed OF two
elongated, nearly straight bones, con-
nected in front merely by an elastic
| ligament. Besides this arrangement
the suspension OF the lower Jaw bones
and the attachment OF the upper ones
provide for great elasticity and enable
serpent to engulf it's prey entire
often an animal four or five times the
diameter of its neck"
The hypnotic power Of a snake is in
vested in its CLASSY eyeballs. which
have no lids. have often watched the
process as applied to a meadow mouse
The snake takes position near the
hole containing the nest of the mouse
| stretching out it's head on the grass
The l4l,,llss energies. secs tho staring