Elementary textbook of economic zoology and entomology . elementarytextbo00kell Year: [c1915] 268 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY drawn back again the body of the snake is thrust forward. It is the movement of these scutes, accompanied by the undulations of the body, that enables the snake to crawl so rapidly. They cannot move forward on smooth surfaces because the scutes have nothing to catch against. The scales on the head are quite regular in their arrangement, forming definite patterns. The bones of the jaws are so arranged that the mouth is very distensible. This allows the snakes to swa
Elementary textbook of economic zoology and entomology . elementarytextbo00kell Year: [c1915] 268 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY drawn back again the body of the snake is thrust forward. It is the movement of these scutes, accompanied by the undulations of the body, that enables the snake to crawl so rapidly. They cannot move forward on smooth surfaces because the scutes have nothing to catch against. The scales on the head are quite regular in their arrangement, forming definite patterns. The bones of the jaws are so arranged that the mouth is very distensible. This allows the snakes to swallow objects which are greater in size than the normal diameter of the body and it is not an unusual sight to see a FIG. 122.—A garter-snake, Thamnophis parietalis. (After Snyder.) snake with a part of its body very greatly distended by some small animal that it has swallowed whole. The tongue is slender, protrusible and deeply notched. It is commonly supposed that the tongue can inflict injury, but this is not true. It doubtless serves as a special organ of touch. The teeth are sharp and recurrent. In the poisonous snakes cer- tain of the teeth develop into long sharp fangs which are grooved or tubular and serve to conduct the poison from the poison gland in the head into the wound. The food of snakes consists very largely of other animals which are usually caught alive. Many species feed on the eggs of other animals. Many persons erroneously regard all snakes as dangerous, and try to kill all that they see. But most of our common kinds are not only harmless but very serviceable because they destroy mice,
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