To many of us the differences between a reptile and a batrachian are
unknown. Even if we have learned that these interesting creatures are well
worth studying and that they possess few or none of the unpleasant
characteristics usually attributed to them, still we are apt to speak of
having seen a lizard in the water at the pond's edge, or of having heard a
reptile croaking near the marsh. To avoid such mistakes, one need only
remember that reptiles are covered with scales and that batrachians have
smooth skins.
Our walks will become more and more interesting as we spread our interest
over a wider field, not confining our observations to birds and mammals
alone, but including members of the two equally distinctive classes of
animals mentioned above. The batrachians, in the northeastern part of our
country, include the salamanders and newts, the frogs and toads, while as
reptiles we number lizards, turtles, and snakes.
Lizards are creatures of the tropics and only two small species are found
in our vicinity, and these occur but rarely. Snakes, however, are more
abundant, and, besides the rare poisonous copperhead and rattlesnake,
careful search will reveal a dozen harmless species, the commonest, of
course, being the garter snake and its near relative the ribbon snake.
About this time of the year snakes begin to feel the thawing effect of the
sun's rays and to stir in their long winter hibernation. Sometimes we will
come upon a ball of six or eight intertwined snakes, which, if they are
still frozen up, will lie motionless upon the ground. But when spring
finally unclasps the seal which has been put upon tree and ground, these
reptiles stretch themselves full length upon some exposed stone, where
they lie basking in the sun.
The process of shedding the skin soon begins; getting clear of the head
part, eye-scales and all, the serpent slowly wriggles its way forward,
escaping from the old skin as a finger is drawn from a glove. At last it
crawls away, bright and shining in its new scaly coat, leaving behind it a
spectral likeness of itself, which slowly sinks and disintegrates amid the
dead leaves and moss, or, later in the year, it may perhaps be discovered
by some crested flycatcher and carried off to be added to its nesting
material.
When the broods of twenty to thirty young garter snakes start out in life
to hunt for themselves, then woe to the earthworms, for it is upon them
that the little serpents chiefly feed.
Six or seven of our native species of snakes lay eggs, usually depositing
them under the bark of rotten logs, or in similar places, where they are
left to hatch by the heat of the sun or by that of the decaying
vegetation. It is interesting to gather these leathery shelled eggs and
watch them hatch, and it is surprising how similar to each other some of
the various species are when they emerge from the shell.
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