. Birds of other lands, reptiles, fishes, jointed animals and lower forms;. Zoology; Birds; Reptiles; Fishes. l88 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD disfavour with which these reptiles are common!}' regarded. Among the uneducated even at the present day it is not unusual to hear the tongue, with reference to its pecuHar shape and vibrating action, pronounced to be the seat and instrument of the animal's poisonous properties. The swift, silent, stealth}-, gliding moti(;ns with which, apart from an}' \'isible organs of locomotion, a snake slides, as it were, along the ground and over all obstacles
. Birds of other lands, reptiles, fishes, jointed animals and lower forms;. Zoology; Birds; Reptiles; Fishes. l88 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD disfavour with which these reptiles are common!}' regarded. Among the uneducated even at the present day it is not unusual to hear the tongue, with reference to its pecuHar shape and vibrating action, pronounced to be the seat and instrument of the animal's poisonous properties. The swift, silent, stealth}-, gliding moti(;ns with which, apart from an}' \'isible organs of locomotion, a snake slides, as it were, along the ground and over all obstacles fill to the brink the measure for its condemnation in the estimation of all but the snake-devotee or the naturalist. The locomotion of the snake is, as a matter of fact, one of the most remark-able and beautifuU}' contrived phenomena in animal mechanics. The peculiarly jointed and abnormally mobile ribs constitute the nn'stic dciis ex viac/iiiid b}' which the reptile accom- plishes its migration. These ribs articulate in pairs b}- a single mobile head with their respective segment of the vertebral column. At their opposite extremity they impinge on and are in muscular connection with the broad, slightly overlapping, shield-like scales which clothe the under surface of the body. The rib-muscles, contracting in rh}'thmical succession, raise the free overlapping edges of the shield-like scales, which, striking against the ground in the same regular order, push the bod}' forward. Adopting an easily comprehensible simile, the snake's bod}' is j carried along the ground on ! the same principle as a pad- dle-wheel steamer is pushed along the surface of the water, the paddle-boards in the case of the snake being affixed to a long, narrow plane instead of a circular wheel. The poison-fangs of snakes are highh- specialised structures, and their presence or otherwise was formerl}' considered sufficiently dis- tinctive for the separation of these reptiles into t\\-o sharpl}' definednatural
Size: 2407px × 1038px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecad, booksubjectfishes, booksubjectzoology
