SNAKE FABLES

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 89, 14 April 1917, Page 14

SNAKE FABLES

A NATURALIST'S NOTES

"MUCH MALIGNED REPTILES."-

Mr. J. S. Edwards, an American naturalist, who has devoted over twenty years of study to snakes in iocs and in the wild, dispels many false ideas about the serpent as a creature.

_ There is no such thing as snake eharmmg, he insists. "Hindu magicians play on their flutelike pipes, open baskets and cobras come forth and dance, it is true but there is no 'charm', in the sense'that the Hindu means, to bo responsible for the snakes actions. In the ■ first place a snake has no ears; it cannot hear music it becomes aware of the presence of moving- bod le s^through feeling the vibrations of tho earth with its extremely pliant muscles. It does not distinguish one trainer from another. It could not tell its Hindu 'charmer' from any one of tbe ignorant bystanders except for tho laiwu^f 8? er awkwar*iess in handling it" Jfcth^pfflsjttat the cobra or other so-caUed "trained" snake when it is released from confinement sways to and from ma certam agreeable feeling of freedom. reason^ The clever, musician, who- pretends to have t|e snake enthralled byTrL mus,o trmkes the notes of his pipe keep time to the twmymg of fhe snaki.. In this £nh-I • CKS^ that the rep^e is obeying the spell which he is „ There » a very definite skfll in hand?W te fP not to hurt a snake that leads the^reptde to be more docile in Baine haads than in others. The Hindus and tZ J?t rmera a^ c Proficient in this, a t!le,f°* li(> appreciates it. h > 6°a™. s 4 .brai?^, too small to enable hS t^ agfl^. etw6ei>- individuals. to\Sv * S^^ ,brain- Proportion to body, m. the whole system of lifeu A very large snake will have a brain weight mg one nine-thousandth of a pound It ?*£& a ■**{&* an ««• »« from a rabbit, or a rabfait from another snake.

SWALLOWING A BLANKET. "I have known them to swallow horse blankets upon which the blood of rabbits or cluckens Wl dripped, being under the.inTOK>n that they were hiving a delightful meal. I hare seen snakes after smalhng fresh]/ slaughtered rabblfblmdly and confidently strike at the nearest movm^ human bemg- When enakes ea t each other some such confusion as this is usually responsible for the mistake for when ,t gets the scent of food in ib'no" n r Vj PrOCe^ to faU uP°n ife brother and devour him without realising its cannibals, if that brother happTw te «beTod cn° *° becoma °°ttfusod with

There are certain snakes which are purely cannibal, but the superstition that^he common snakes swallow each other whol© as a custom is erroneous. -Car' Hagenbeck the German collector of wild animals, has said that a python m his menagerie swallowed » ninety-four pound goat This, so far as Mr, Edwards has been able to collect from, records, is the Limit of a snake's performance. Humours that in the jangle oxen and caribou have run down a snake's throat in the whole have never been substantiated Keepers usually kill the animals thai are destined for food before giving them to snakes. They buy pigs out of cold storage and warm up the carcasses before presenting them to the reptiles. A snake's stjomach is a wonderful thing • it will accept, and digest bone, but itwill not attempt to digest hoof or horn. Grain it will not digest, but the hard spinal column of a. pig it will consume entirely. It wiU swallow all eggs good and bad, but will regurgitate the bad ones. "Long Tom, a boa constrictor, in swallowing- a; pig spends an hour from the time he seizes the nose until the hind hoofs go down his throat," says Mr.: Edwards. "Before attempting to swallow it' he coils himself about it, pressing it into a long, round roll, without, however,, .breaking its bones. •Snakes have a peculiar faculty for compressing the bodies of victims without splintering the bones. Long Tom draw* the pig down by cdn.traoting his muscles,, pulling and pushing the carcass slowly downward. ■ When the mass reaches his stomach, about midway of hia long-; body, he creeps slowly away to remain qniet for at least twenty-four hours. He does not demand food again' for a_ week. This is the programme followed with every large snake. They must bo kept warm during their period of digesting, for cold interferes with them tremendously." BIRDS NOT HYPNOTISED. "Perhaps the greatest and commonest error made in snake history is the belief that snakes charm birds," remarks Mr. Edwards. Nothing like the hypnotism "so charged ever occurred. Snakes do not ■ fascinate birds and animals, They frighten birds, because birds know by instinct that snakes mean danger. But a bird seeing a snake will hurry, off, never stand fear-frozen, helplessly awaiting the fatal stroke. So quiokly does the make strike and so slowly does it approach the unsuSpectihg- bird that the bird frequently never knows of the assassin's presence, and is caught motionless, giving the momentary appearance of being petrified. As a part of this general sn&lce hatred the^ idea has grown' up that it is correct to eat eels, and yet distasteful, to say the least, to eat enakes., As a matter of fact, snakes are far better eating than eels, for they are more cleanly. Tainted flesh they will avoid carefully, refusing. anything that is not live or freshly killed." The larger reptiles, however, would prove extremely tough, owing to the size, and num- ! ber of their muscles along the body. "Islanders in Malaya' eat snakes regu- ' larly and thrive thereupon.' I am not urging- that people should take up snake steak to fight the high cost j6f living. I am merely concerned with clearing the reputation of a much maligned reptile." ■ ■ .;..-.■■.