ng to capture the
lizard. That these pieces ever join and heal together is of course a
silly fable. As a matter of fact, the body in a comparatively short
time grows a new tail, which, however, is much shorter and stumpier
than the old one. The new piece is often of a different color from the
rest of the body and {99} greatly resembles a "horn," being conical and
pointed, and has thus given rise to another equally silly fable, viz.,
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 quality of some of the species in
various parts of the country.

[Illustration: Rattlesnake palate]

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 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 of
a rattlesnake's tail there is a horny cap which is {100} called the
button, and being narrowed at the base and more strongly built than
the rest of the epidermis it is not shed with the rest o