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The Joint Snake

The Joint Snake image
Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
December
Year
1887
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The snake lizard. or ''joint suako" as it is called in some loealities, is a peculiar reptilc, says the SV fiHtir American, and has seemingly puzzled tb.8 earlior naturalists as to its proper classinVation. some placing it amongthe serpents (ophidia), and others with the lizards (laoertilia) . It is sorpentlike in forrn, belng destituto of limbs, but a mere glanee at its uiatomy proves it to bc a truc lizard. The lower jaw bono is not disjointed as in the snakes, and the eycs of the snake lizard have movable lids, and its ears are visible oxternally- vharacters which never appear in serpents. lts tongiio is nt slender, forked and sheathed as in the serpents, but is somewhat arrowshaped, notehcd in front and covered bcfore with granular, and posteriorily with filiform papillas The seales are quadrangular in shape, arranged in transverso rows, and a fold of skin runs along each side of the body, separating the upper from the lower parts. The tail of a snake or lizard is a'ways considered that portion posterior to the anal opening or vent. The portion anterior to the vent is the body proper, as it contains all of the vital organs, while the tail contains nothing important. In the snake lizard the vent is situated far forward, and the tail is often twice the length of the head and body together. When the reptile is struck lightly, the portion which seemingly is voluntarily broken to pieces is always the tail, never the body or that portion anterior to the anal opening. "In manj' of the lizards the caudal vertebra} have a very singular structure, the middle of each being traversed by a tbin, unossified transverso septum. The vertebra naturally breaks with great readiness through the plane of the septum, and when such lizards are seized by the tail, that appendage is pretty certain to part at one of these weak points." The muscles of the tail do not pass over these joints, so that the parting of the tail does not causo a tearing apart of the muscular fibers, but simply a separation of one muscular píate from another. It has been asked: "Why is the tail of certain lizzards so brittle?"- a question that can not be laiswered satisfactorily, inasmueh as the vetebras of the tails of some lizzards are as strongly bound together as in the serpents. To the snake lizzard the fragüe tail is a benefit rather than a misfortune, for when the defenseless reptile is seized by a rapacious animal it snaps off its tail in ssveral writhing pieces, which it leaves in the possession of its astonished enemy, while the head and body, the vital parts, wrigglo away into the grass and escape. But the snake lizzard is not doomed after such a misfortune to pass the remainder of its Ufe without a tail, for it has the power to replace the lost member, ot by 'pasting or cementing together the old broken portions, but by rapidly growing a new one. When the tail has once been broken, it is hardiy necessary to say that it is impossible for the reptile to collect and reunite the pieces A certain man declares that he beat a "joint snake" iuto a dozen or more pieces, and left it for over an hour, and when he returned to the spot ho found that "the parts of the snake had come together again and crawled away. " He would xot be convinced that some animal had carried away or devoured it during his absence, which certainly must have been the case. A traveler who frequently met with the "glass snake" during his botanical rambles says : " It is as innocent and harmless as an earthworm. When full grown it is about two and a half feet in length and three-fourths of an inch in thickness. The abdomen or body part is remarkably short, and it seems to bo all tail, which, though long, gradually attenuates to its extremity. The color and texture ef the whole mal is mucli likc bluish-green glass, which, together with its fragility, almost persuades a stranger that it is in reality that brittlo substance. Though quick and nimble in twisting about, yet it can not run with much rapidity, but quickly secretes itself in the grassor under leaves." He, of course, contradiets the "vulgar fable" that it is able to repair itself after being broken into pieces. In Ufe tho head of tho snake lizard is mottled black and green, yellowish about the jaws. The body and tail above are markod with linos of black, green and yellow, corresponding to the position of the scales. The under surfaíe of tho whole animal is ycllow, most brilliant along thc abdomen. Several color varictics have been described from discolored alcoholic specimens, but in tho living animal the color is always as given above, varying only in depth and brilliancy. It has been found in all of thc Southern States from Southern Virginia to Texas inclusive; and in tho West its range extends as far north as Wisconsin and Iowa. It seems to prefer open fields and dry or sandy localities, and is frequently met with in sweet potato fields in the South. It is said to feed inainly upon inseets. The Isthmus of Corinth Canal Company has been obliged to obtain an extensión oí three years from the Greck Government in which to complete its works. The canal, which was commenced in 1883, was to havo been opened in 1888. Great mistakes appear to have been made in regard to geological strata, which have to be dealt with. Rock instead of sand or gravel has been encountered in certain places. At Silver Lake, six miles from Traverse City, Mich., natural gas bubbles up through the water. Every bubble, vvhen lighted, will explode and make as light a large as a man's head. TnE wax candios used in the churches of Russia during a singlo year costs íl, 000,000. To supply the market many of thc tribes of Finns make bee-keeping thcir leading industry. A coLLECTiON of relies illustrating the lifo, habits and characteristics of prehistorie man has been opened to public exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register