. Animal life in field and garden . naccount of their venom, while others, at least thoseof this region, are not in the least dangerous. Butwe are all too prone to lose sight of this differencein serpents. The evil reputation of the one withvenomous fangs is fastened on all the others, sothat we abhor them all alike because we believe themall to be venomous. In France we have only onevenomous serpent, the viper, and all the others,large as well as small, are perfectly harmless andwe will refer to them simply as snakes. In one of our former talks* I told you about theviper, describing its form
. Animal life in field and garden . naccount of their venom, while others, at least thoseof this region, are not in the least dangerous. Butwe are all too prone to lose sight of this differencein serpents. The evil reputation of the one withvenomous fangs is fastened on all the others, sothat we abhor them all alike because we believe themall to be venomous. In France we have only onevenomous serpent, the viper, and all the others,large as well as small, are perfectly harmless andwe will refer to them simply as snakes. In one of our former talks* I told you about theviper, describing its form and coloring, the structureof its venomous apparatus, and the effects of itsbite. I here repeat the principal facts then related,in order to give you now a connected account of ourserpents as a class. All serpents dart back and forth between theirlips, with extreme rapidity, something that lookslike a black thread, of great flexibility and ending ina fork. Many persons believe this to be the reptiles *See The Story-Book of 262 ANIMAL LIFE IN FIELD AND GARDEN weapon, the sting, as they call it, whereas in realityit is nothing but the tongue—a quite inoffensivetongue, which the creature uses for catching insectsto feed upon, and also for expressing in its own pe-culiar fashion the passionsthat agitate it. This last itdoes by shooting the tongue„ ^ , „ , . swiftly in and out between the Head of Snake, showing * Forked Tongue jpg^ ^^ ggrpeuts without CX- ception have a tongue, but in our country it is onlythe viper that possesses the terrible apparatus forinjecting venom. This apparatus is composed, first, of two fangsor long, sharp teeth, situated in the upper jaw. Un-like ordinary teeth, these fangs are not fixed firmlyin their sockets, but can at the creatures will standup for attack or lie down in a groove of the gum andremain there as harmless as a stiletto in its this way the viper runs no risk of wounding fangs are hollow and pierced near
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