Lesson XLIX

The Garter, or Garden, Snake

Leading thought—The garter snake is a common and harmless little creature and has many interesting habits which are worth studying.

Method—A garter snake may be captured and placed in a box with a glass cover and thus studied in detail in the schoolroom, but the lesson should begin with observations made by the children on the snakes in their native haunts.

Observations—1. What are the colors and markings of your garter snake? Do the stripes extend along the head as well as the body? How long is it?

2. Describe its eyes, its ears, its nostrils and its mouth.

3. If you disturb it how does it act? Why does it thrust its tongue out? What shape is its tongue?

4. In what position is the snake when it rests? Can you see how it moves? Look upon the lower side. Can you see the little plates extending crosswise? Do you think it moves by moving these plates? Let it crawl across your hand, and see if you can tell how it moves.

5. What does the garter snake eat? Did you ever see one swallow a toad? A frog? Did it take it head first or tail first?

6. Where does the garter spend the winter? How early does it appear in the spring?

7. At what time of year do you see the young snakes? Do the young ones run down the throat of the mother for safety when attacked? Does the mother snake defend her young?

8. What enemies has the garter snake?

“No life in earth or air or sky;
The sunbeams, broken silently,
On the bared rocks around me lie,⁠—

Cold rocks with half-warmed lichens scarred,
And scales of moss; and scarce a yard
Away, one long strip, yellow-barred.

Lost in a cleft! ’Tis but a stride
To reach it, thrust its roots aside,
And lift it on thy stick astride!

Yet stay! That moment is thy grace!
For round thee, thrilling air and space,
A chattering terror fills the place!

A sound as of dry bones that stir,
In the dead valley! By yon fir
The locust stops its noon-day whir!

The wild bird hears; smote with the sound.
As if by bullet brought to ground
On broken wing, dips, wheeling round!

The hare, transfixed, with trembling lip,
Halts breathless, on pulsating hip,
And palsied tread, and heels that slip.

Enough, old friend!—’tis thou. Forget
My heedless foot, nor longer fret
The peace with thy grim castanet!”

From “Crotalus” (The Rattlesnake), Bret Harte.