Identifier: animansmanelemen00kell (
find matches)Title:
The animans and man; an elementary textbook of zoology and human physiologyYear:
1911 (
1910s)Authors:
Kellogg, Vernon L. (Vernon Lyman), 1867-1937 McCracken, Mary IsabelSubjects:
Zoology PhysiologyPublisher:
New York, H. Holt and companyContributing Library:
MBLWHOI LibraryDigitizing Sponsor:
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view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.Text Appearing Before Image:mong which the particularhorned toad lives. All the species of horned toads areviviparous, seven or eight young being born alive at a time.In New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico the onlyexisting poisonous lizard, the Gila monster (fig. 105), isfound. This is a heavy, deep-black, orange-mottled lizardabout sixteen inches long. There is much variance of beliefamong people regarding the Gila monster, but recent ex-periments have proved the poisonous nature of the animal.The poison, wrhich is secreted by the glands in the lower 208 THE ANIMALS AND MAN jaw, flows along the grooved teeth into the wound. A beau-tiful and interesting little lizard found in the south is thegreen chameleon. Its body is about three inches long,with a slender tail of about five or six inches. The nor-mal color of the chameleon is grass-green, but it may as-sume almost instantly shades varying from a beautifulemerald to a dark and iridescent bronze color. About 1000 living species of snakes are known. UsuallyText Appearing After Image:FIG. 106. The gopher-snake, Pituophis bellona. (Photograph from life,by J. O. Snyder.) they have the body regularly cylindrical, and without dis-tinct division into body-regions. Legs are wanting, loco-motion being effected by the help of the scales and ribs.No snake can move forward on a perfectly smooth surface,and no snake can leap. In some forms, such as the pythons,external rudiments of the hind limbs are present, but donot aid in locomotion. The mouth is large and distensible,so that prey of considerably greater size than the normaldiameter of the snakes body is frequently swallowed whole.The sense of taste is very little if at all developed, as the foodis swallowed without mastication. The tongue, which is THE VERTEBRATES 209 protrusible, and usually red or blue-black, serves as a specialorgan of touch. Hearing is poor, the ears being very littledeveloped. The sense of sight is also probably not at allkeen. Snakes rely chiefly on the sense of smell for findingtheir prey and theNote About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.