NATURE BEATS THE FABLES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 9 (Supplement)

NATURE BEATS THE FABLES.

Fantastic Realities Outdo The Mythical

BUT SNAKES DO NOT SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG

SOME weeks ago a man called at the office of Dr. Raymond L. Ditmars, in the Xexv York Zoological Park, to offer what lie felt was convincing eye-witness testimony on the Ion"" debated subject of a snake swallowing its young to protect them in times o? danger.

He was a reasonable, thoughtful man and the curator of mammals and reptiles has comparatively little difficulty in convincing him that his eves and the lightness of his knowledge" of snake habits had betrayed him. c And then Dr. Ditmars invited him to take a stroll through the reptile house and inspect the collection at feeding time. The doctor and his guest stopped before a cage that contained a diminutive brown snake two feet long—no larger than one's little finger and curiously formed, having a head scarcely any larger than its body.

Keeper Taggart came along just then, slid the glass panel aside and laid a bantam egg down beside the snake. "But isn't lie going to break the egg?" tlie visitor inquired. "Your label says that's an African egg-eating snake; but don't you have to break the shell for it?" "Watch it a minute." said Dr. Ditmars. Five Times Its Diameter. The tiny serpent turned and approached the egg. In comparison to the size of the snake's head, the egg seemed enormous —fully five times its diameter.

And then, as they watched, the tiny jaws opened and seized a fraction of the egg; slowly, sixteenth of an inch bv sixteenth, the jaws worked forward with much squirming and straining. The skin of the head and jaws stretched— stretched again—stretched paper-thin and seemingly almost to the bursting point as the egg was engulfed. Within ten minutes the egg was out of sight, although <i terrific bulge in the creature's throat showed very clearly where it was. The serpent seemed to he in pain; its taut throat muscles worked spasmodically. And then suddenly the bulge subsided, and presently

thrn,fT k '% ej ' octed ' tlle of shell thi ough its mouth—crushed and flatInd sh T Jl lat hacl boon cut cleanly and sharply through by the tiny saws ~ snake's throat. The visitor was goggle-eyed. "Well!" he said. Well! After this I'll believe an? thing about snakes. You're not to tell me I didn't see that snake swallow an egg five times its own size, are you?" '

,P r \ Ditmars laughed. "You saw it, all right. But I meant that as an object lesson to you— that you don't nave to believe impossible things about animals, because the things they actually do are amazing enough," The trouble with animals is°tliat they do so many fantastic things—actually and demonstrably do them—that many people don t know where to draw the line between scientific truth and natural history myth. If one snake can swallow an object five times the size of its head, what's to prevent another snake from swallowing its own young? A Desert Thirst Myth. It is ail ancient- belief that travellers in the desert, when about to perish from tliiist, have saved themselves by shooting their camels and drinking the water stored in the creatures' stomachs. Well a man would indeed have to be near death from thirst to attempt to drink water that has been sloshing around in a camel's stomach for several days. After he drank it he would probably die anyway. A thirsty camel can put awa.y fifteen or twenty gallons of water at a time, but after he has taken it in, it is not good for anything much but tlie camel's own needs.

There are several myths about animals that are puzzling because it is hard to understand how they began. The ordinary myth, 06 course, is generally based 011 poor observatioli or ail incomplete knowledge of a specific animal's structure or habits. But what about the story that when a fox has stolen a goose, he goes off carrying it slung over liis shoulder?

That it is a. myth there can be no doubt. My guess is that the origin of that n-tory is purely literal. The fox was a. favourite character in the medieval beast epic, and the stories have been illustrated innumerable times. In certain illustrations the goose is being carried in this way, and almost certainly that is the origin of the story. When Snakes Die From Bite. It has often been said that captured poisonous snakes can and do kill themselves by self-inflicted bites. Recently an African yellow cobra bit its cage: mate in the reptile house, an Indian cobra, and the latter died two weeks later with evidei\-s of poisoning—yet Dr. Ditmars does not believe that snakes of the same species can poison each other. These cobras, while of the same genus, were of different species.

As evidence, Dr. Ditmars cites the fact that he has often brought in bags of rattlesnakes from field trips, and

found that they had bitten themselves or each other many times. Scores of times he has seen noosed snakes bite themselves, with 110 ill-effects. Sometimes one rattlesnake will bite another and the bitten specimen dies, but autopsies have always revealed that the fangs punctured a vital spot and had the same effect as if a knife or a needle had been plunged into the creature. One copperhead was bitten by another copperhead and died •almost instantly. In that instance the snake's heart had been punctured. Another Belief Explodes. The belief that in times of danger or alarm certain, or all, snakes swallow their young to "protect" them,' later disgorging them when the danger is judged to be past, is so widespread and so lirmly ingrained that 110 one can advance any argument against it and really expect to be believed. The belief is not peculiar to America; the Australians, and perhaps the people of other countries, hold that idea firmly. What appeared at first sight to be an authentic instance of a garter snake swallowing its young occurred last summer near Minneapolis. The incident was described to Dr. Ditmars in a letter from Mr. O. I'j. Tallman, of Minneapolis. Out of literally thousands of letters the curator of mammals and reptiles has received 011 the subject, Mr. Tallman's is the first that actually explodes the myth by applying to it the methods that alone can prove or disprove such a story. Mr. Tallman, a sportsman who has long been interested in serpents and has

small private collection, saw what he would have sworn was a case of a snake swallowing its young —and then he investigated. With his permission the following is quoted from a letter to Dr. Ditmars

"I was going along the edge of tlie lake looking for some live frogs for bait, when I saw an old and pretty large garter snake with her young, and saw this swallowing going on. 1 tell you, it was real to me at Jirst and would have been real to anyone el.se. But as I am not afraid of snakes and had read in your book, 'Snakes of the World,' that you did not believe it ever happened, I made it a point to find out. "I picked up the old snake and straightened her out full length. I was sure I had seen, sixteen or eighteen of the little snakes, but there did not seem to be any signs of them being inside her. Eye Deceived by Speed. "I shook her, as I know that an excited snake will disgorge what it has eaten at times, but I could get nothing out of her. So I started feeling all along her sides.

"I had a large minnow bucket with me. I emptied it and put the old snake in it. I kept her there for some hours and watched for her to let the young loose again, but I never saw any young, not even one. So I went back where I saw it all take place, and found a hole that went down in the ground, and then I positively saw what had happened. "This old snake had come to the hole and had placed her head directly over the top of it, moving her head "back and forth, and those little snakes were going right under her head and down that hole so fast that I thought they were going into her mouth.

"I dug in there and got the young, and I brought all of them home with me. I did not put tlicin together in the pail, but put the little ones in a 6ack, and kept them separate all that day and that night. No little ones came from the old snake at all."—William Bridges, curator of publications, New York Zoological Park.