Popular Official Guide to the New York Zoological Park 30

Popular Official Guide to the New York Zoological Park 30

Our well-known Gila Monster, (pronounced _He_-la) (_Heloderma

suspectum_), is a stupid, slow-moving creature from the southwestern

deserts, thick-set and stumpy in body, and it has the appearance of

being covered all over with dark-brown-black, and yellow beads, such as

Indians use in their bead industry. Its bite is sufficiently venomous

that it inflicts a painful wound, but it is not necessarily fatal.

 

The Chameleon of the Old World, (_Chamaeleo vulgaris_), because of its

color phases and its remarkable form, is truly a great “curiosity”; but

it should not be confused with our so-called American Chameleon, which

belongs to another Family, and is also less interesting.

 

 

THE SERPENTS.

 

The Order of Serpents, (_Ophidia_).—The large glazed cases along the

northern side of the main hall of the Reptile House are devoted to the

larger serpents, while the smaller species are provided for along the

south wall, and in the adjoining room. One serious difficulty in the

management of a collection of living serpents lies in the fact that

often the most valuable specimens are so nervous and shy in their

feeding habits it is impossible to cage several together.

 

Out of the many species of serpents exhibited in the Reptile House, ten

are chosen as fairly representing the principal groups.

 

The Regal Python, (_Python reticulatus_), here represented by a fine

specimen, 22 feet in length, weighing 170 pounds, is the best

representative of the rock pythons of Asia and Africa. The island of

Borneo is its center of distribution. None of the constrictors is

venomous, but their crushing power is almost beyond belief.

 

The Rock Python, (_Python sebae_), of Africa, is a light-colored species

with a very small head, and is frequently seen in the hands and around

the necks of snake-charmers.

 

The Anaconda, (_Eunectes murinus_), is one of the largest constrictors

of tropical America, and is noted for its aquatic habits. It is a

handsome serpent, being of a rich green color, marked with large black

spots.

 

The Black Snake, (_Bascanium constrictor_), a common species in the

eastern United States, is probably the highest type of the harmless

snakes. It is a serpent of great vigor and activity in running,

climbing, and swimming; it possesses great courage, and seeks prey of

many kinds in all kinds of situations.

 

[Illustration: RHINOCEROS VIPER.]

 

The Garter Snake, (_Eutaenia sirtalis_), is more frequently seen in the

eastern United States than any other serpent. Although the warfare waged

against it is perpetual, regardless of the fact that it is as harmless

as a fly, its numbers do not sensibly diminish.

 

The Hog-Nosed Snake, “Puff Adder,” or “Sand-Viper,” (_Heterodon

platyrhinus_), represents a large and important Family, and, despite its

dangerous appearance and terrifying names, it is quite harmless. It

represents one of Nature’s methods for protecting harmless and inactive

creatures, by making them resemble others which are dangerous.

 

Venomous Reptiles.—Because of the number of species of rattlesnakes

which have found lodgment in the United States, and the trouble they

have caused in a few localities, we are specially interested in all

serpents which are dangerous to man. The species named below represents

the deadly genera which civilized man has most cause to fear.

 

The Harlequin Snake, or Coral Snake, (_Elaps fulvius_), represents a

genus which contains many species, though but few of them occur in

America.

 

The King Cobra, (_Naja bungaris_), from the Malay Peninsula, often

called Snake-Eating Cobra, is the most dangerous of all serpents,

because it is the largest and the most athletic of the venomous species,

and for its bite there is no effective antidote. It feeds only on living

snakes. The fine specimen exhibited is about ten feet in length.

 

[Illustration: COBRA-DE-CAPELLO.]

 

The Cobra-de-Capello, (_Naja tripudians_), of which some fine specimens

are shown, is the terror of India, where it kills between 18,000 and

20,000 people annually! This is the most deadly of all serpents. For its

bite, science has thus far been powerless to find an antidote, although

Dr. Albert Calmette, of Lille, France, experimenting extensively in this

direction, has secured partially successful results.

 

The most vicious snake in North America, and one of the ugliest in

appearance, is the Water Moccasin, (_Ancistrodon piscivorus_),—closely

related to the beautiful Copperhead, (_A. contortrix_). It is more

dreaded in the South than the rattler, because it strikes on the

slightest provocation, and without the rattler’s timely warning. Its

colors are dull, its scales rough, its body ill-shaped and clumsy, its

temper is vicious, and for every reason it is a serpent to be disliked.

 

The Diamond-Back Rattlesnake, (_Crotalus adamanteus_), is too handsome,

too showy, and too large to be chosen as the best average type of the

genus _Crotalus_; but he is king of his kind, and cannot be ignored.

Three species shown side by side in our Reptile House afford striking

examples of protective coloration. The Diamond-Back Rattler of Florida

and the South is yellow, brown, and black, to match the checkers of

sunbeam and shadow that fall upon the sands under the palmetto leaves.

 

 

THE BATRACHIANS, OR AMPHIBIANS.

 

Among the many wonders of Nature, none is more interesting than those

forms which serve to connect the great groups of vertebrate animals, by

bridging over what otherwise would seem like impassable chasms.

 

Between the birds and the reptiles there is a fossil bird, called the

Archæopteryx, with a long, vertebrated, lizard-like tail, which is

covered with feathers, and the Hesperornis, a water bird with teeth, but

no wings, which inhabited the shores of the great western lake which has

already yielded to American paleontologists a great number of most

remarkable fossil forms.

 

Between the reptiles and the fishes, stretches a wonderful chain of

living links by which those two Classes of vertebrates are so closely

and unbrokenly united, and by such an array of forms, that they

constitute an independent Class, the Batrachia, or Amphibia. In the

transition from water to land, from fins and gills to legs and lungs,

Nature has made some strange combinations. In some instances the fins,

legs, lungs and gills have become so mixed that several notable misfits

have resulted, and in some cases we see gills and legs going together,

while in other lungs and fins are associated.

 

The Reptile House contains about two dozen species of Amphibians, and it

is reasonably certain that this number will be maintained and increased.

They are to be found in small aquarium cases, ranged along the south

side and eastern end of the Main Hall.

 

The Bullfrog, (_Rana catesbiana_), is a fair representative of the

Batrachians which stand nearest to the true land-going reptiles. During

the early stages of its existence it is in turn, a fin-tailed tadpole

with no legs, a short-tailed tadpole with a pair of front legs, a

shorter-tailed tadpole with four legs, and finally a fully-developed,

land-going frog with a voice like a small bull, and no tail whatever. Of

the genus _Rana_, there are five species in the eastern United States,

several of which inhabit the Zoological Park.

 

The Wood Frog, (_Rana sylvatica_), is frequently seen in moist valleys

in the Zoological Park, where its chocolate brown back so closely

matches the color of the dead leaves and moist earth; it is difficult to

find, save when it takes one of its flying leaps. The specimens shown

were taken near the Beaver Pond.

 

The Tree Frog, (_Hyla pickeringi_), is the commonest of the queer little

tree-loving species which are so easy to hear, and so difficult to find.

In spring their voices are the first to be heard in the swamps. The

Zoological Park is full of _Hylas_, and their cheerful piping is heard

at all seasons, especially in dry midsummer, when dark storm-clouds

gather and promise rain.

 

The Common Toad, (_Bufo lentiginosus_), is found in the Zoological Park,

though not in such abundance as the two preceding species.

 

Among the most remarkable creatures in the Reptile House are the

specimens of Smooth-Clawed Frog, (_Xenopus laevis_), from Africa and The

Surinam Toad, (_Pipa americana_). Both of these species are strictly

aquatic and have broadly palmated hind feet. The Surinam Toad comes from

Dutch Guiana. It is unique in its breeding habits. The male collects the

eggs and places them on the female’s back where they are engulfed in

large folds of the skin, which form cells in which the metamorphosis

occurs.

 

The Spotted Salamander, (_Salamandra maculosa_), because of its broad,

bright yellow bands and blotches, laid on a rich, dark-brown body color,

is one of the most showy of all Amphibians. It comes from Europe, and

being much prized in collections, it frequently passes through the hands

of dealers in reptiles. Its skin is very moist and clammy, which gives

the creature the appearance of having been varnished. This is the

creature which is supposed to be able to withstand fire—a belief which

is purely imaginative.

 

The Tiger Salamander or Axolotl, (_Amblystoma tigrinum_), is a widely

different creature from the preceding. It is found throughout the

greater portion of the North American continent, and as far south as

Central Mexico. Thirteen other species of the genus _Amblystoma_ are

found in North America and Mexico. In the matter of “harmonizing with

environment,” the _Amblystoma_ is one of the most remarkable creatures

in existence. In its larval stage (corresponding with the tadpole stage

of a frog), this animal possesses external gills, red and sponge-like in

appearance, and its tail has a fin-like edge above and below, like the

tail of an eel.

 

[Illustration: METAMORPHOSIS OF THE LEOPARD FROG.]

 

So long as this larval creature remains in water, its external gills

remain and do duty, and the larval stage continues indefinitely. Remove

it from water, or let its home pool dry up, and, presto! its gills dry

up, its tail loses its fin-like edges, and the creature goes about on

land, breathing air instead of water, with lungs instead of gills.

 

The “Water-Dog” or “Hellbender,” (_Cryptobranchus allegheniensis_), is a

salamander-like amphibian, from 18 to 22 inches long when adult, found

more frequently in Pennsylvania than elsewhere. They are said to be very

tenacious of life, and voracious in their food habits, feeding on worms,

minnows and crayfish, and often taking the hook of the fisherman in

quest of that most repulsive of all American fishes, the cat-fish.

Between cat-fish and water-dog there would seem to be small choice. Mr.

William Frear offers this testimony in regard to the tenacity of life of

this creature:

 

“One specimen, about 18 inches in length, which had lain on the ground

exposed to a summer sun for 48 hours, was brought to the museum, and

left lying a day longer before it was placed in alcohol. The day

following, desiring to note a few points of structure, I removed it from

the alcohol in which it had been completely submerged for at least 20

hours, and had no sooner placed in on the table than it began to open

its big mouth, vigorously sway its tail to and fro, and give other undoubted signs of vitality.”