Page:Handbook for Boys.djvu/120

Rh greatly resembles a "horn," being conical and pointed, and has thus given rise to another equally silly fable, vis., that of the horn snake, or hoop snake, which is said to have a sting in its tail and to be deadly poisonous. The lizards are all perfectly harmless, except the sluggish Gila monster (pronounced Heela, named from the Gila River in Arizona) which lives in the deserts of Arizona and Mexico, and whose bite may be fatal to man. The poison glands are situated at the point of the lower jaw, and the venom is taken up by the wound while the animal hangs on to its victim with the tenacity of a bulldog. All the other lizards are harmless in spite of the dreadful stories told about the deadly quantity of some of the species in various parts of the country.

The snakes form the last group of the reptiles. Universally legless, though some of the boas and pythons have distinct outer rudiments of

hind limbs, they are not easily mistaken. And it is perhaps well so, for unless one is an expert at distinguishing between the poisonous and the harmless kind it is just as well to keep at a respectful distance from them. It is safest not to interfere with them, especially as those that are not poisonous are usually very useful in destroying rats and mice and other vermin, except perhaps those living in trees and feeding on eggs and young birds, which certainly do not deserve our protection. Of course Rattlesnake palate the rattlesnake is not to be mistaken. The horny appendix to its tail, with which it sounds the warning of its presence, is enough to distinguish it. It should here be explained that both lizards and snakes at various intervals shed the outer layer of their skin, the so-called epidermis. This transparent layer, after a certain length of time, loosens and is usually stripped off whole by the animal crawling out of it and turning it inside out, as a tight glove is turned. Now, at the end