8. A snake swallows its food whole, and in almost every case the food consists of living animals measuring more in diameter than the reptile itself.

9. Some snakes have two long teeth or fangs in their upper jaws, with poison bags at the roots of them. When these serpents bite their prey, poison is squeezed out of the bags or glands, and is squirted down through a tube or canal in the tooth into the wound of the victim.

LESSON 16.

VENOMOUS AND NON-VENOMOUS

REPTILES.

ven'-om-ous ver'-ti-cal e-rects'

con-stric'-tion

di-ag'-on-al-ly in'-no-cent re-pel'-lent cop'-per-y

in-ject'-ed

blotched

grat'-i-tude fledg'-ling struc'-ture
e-las'-tic tor'-por

di-min'-ish-ing

1. In America there are but two species of poisonous reptiles, the rattlesnake and the copperhead. These snakes are not very common; each year they grow less numerous.

2. The rattlesnake, so called because of the bony rattle at the end of the tail, measures from forty to sixty inches. It is dark brown in color, diagonally marked with brown, black and tan. When angered the snake erects its fangs and

strikes. This presses the tooth back against the venom sac and squeezes out the poison, which passes through a channel in the fang and so enters the wound. The bite is very dangerous, though not always deadly.

3. The copperhead measures about one yard. The head is very flat and has a coppery cast. Its color is brown above with darker blotched markings. The fangs are like those of the rattlesnake. It has no warning rattle and is a most dangerous reptile.

4. Poisonous snakes differ in appearance from the harmless ones. Venomous reptiles have fangs

and few teeth. The pupil of the eye is vertical and there is a deep pit on the side of the face between the eye and nostril. The harmless snakes have no fangs, both jaws have a full set of teeth, and the pupil of the eye is round.

5. While it is wise and necessary to destroy poisonous reptiles, it is quite wrong to kill harmless ones. The garter-snake, the blowing adder, the little green snake and others are innocent and helpful

HEAD OF THE GARTER-SNAKE.

creatures.

6. Snakes feed upon rats, mice, moles, insects, grubs and slugs. All these do great damage in the field and garden, and much gratitude is due to the repellent reptile for diminishing the number of these pests.

7. The black snake or racer is harmless, but ugly in appearance. It climbs trees with ease, and robs birds' nests of eggs or fledglings. The black snake kills its prey by constriction, that is, it winds its body about the victim and squeezes out the life. By this same method it wins in a battle with other snakes, even with the rattlesnake.

8. Snakes can swallow prey broader than themselves. This is possible because of the wideopen jaws and elastic structure. They pass the

winter in a torpor. Snakes show no gratitude, no affection; the senses are dull and sluggish. They seem void of any commendable traits, save the appetite that does away with harmful and annoying pests.

ugly, its mother always says that it will be sure to grow into a good-looking man or woman.

2. Many insects are certainly ugly when they are young; yet they become quite beautiful when they are full-grown.

3. The strange thing about all insects is the number of changes they have to go through before they become perfect. An insect is never born in the form by which we know it.

4. We often say a thing is "as beautiful as a butterfly." And truly a butterfly has a very fairylike form. Its wings are often large, and yet so delicately and prettily formed. If we merely touch a wing, the beautiful scales that mark it come off on our hands like powder.

5. It is only in the warm weather, when flowers are plentiful, that we see butterflies about. This is because they live on the juice of flowers, which they suck through a little trunk. This trunk, or tongue, is coiled up when not in use.

6. On the front of the head a butterfly has a pair of feelers. On the end of each feeler is a little

ANTENNE OF BUTTERFLIES.

ANTENNE OF MOTHS.

knob. Moths have no knobs on their feelers. These feelers are called antennæ. A moth's body is usually heavier and more hairy than that of a butterfly. Butterflies fly by day, and moths at night.

7. The butterfly has to flit about over long distances in order to find sufficient feeding-places on which to lay her little eggs. She may be dead before her orphan children are born, and they will