CHAPTER XII.
OPHIDIAN ACROBATS: CONSTRUCTION AND CONSTRICTION.
BEFORE discussing the most remarkable of all ophidian caudal appendages, the Crotalus rattle, and the many speculations regarding it, we will enumerate some other acrobatic achievements of which snakes are capable; as, in accounting for these, some interesting facts appertaining to their anatomical structure can be described.
A humorous journalist has said, ‘There is apparently nothing that a snake can not do, except swallow a porcupine.’[63] Presuming that he alludes to physical feats, he is not far from wrong. For all that, the Western pioneers of America tell us of yet one more thing that these reptiles cannot accomplish, and that is, cross over a rope of horse-hair. Having by accident discovered that they turn aside from this, some Western settlers, when camping out, have effectually entrenched themselves within a circle of horse-hair rope as a barrier to rattlesnakes while sleeping.
Let us try to account for this.
Many of my readers have seen the cast-off coat of a snake. Those who have not can have the pleasure of examining one or several the next time they go to the Zoological Gardens, where the obliging keeper will cheerfully exhibit them. Others at a distance may not enjoy this facility, and for these the accompanying diagrams may be a slight compensation.
