Lendall eskew, age 10, of South Charleston, W. Va., for his question:

Are there really flying snakes?

Many people are scared of all snakes, whether or not the crawly creatures are dangerous to them. To these peop1e a snake in the grass is horrible enough, and the notion of a Snake swooping through the air is downright monstrous,. But some snakes do take to the air.

The plantations of Asia are often populated with swarms of flying lizards. These small, pretty creatures are fitted with wings of a sort. They have sets of false ribs which extend beyond their sides, and these bony frameworks are covered with skin. The flying lizards extend their wings and glide and parachute from treetop to treetop. In the air the gayly colored little creatures are said to look like flocks of flying jewels.

But lizards are lizards, and snakes, though closely related, are snakes. It is hard to imagine how a limbless snake could take to the air or even dare to try. But it can be done. The amazing feat is proved possible every day by hosts of small tree snakes that enjoy life in the tropical jungles of Java, Sumatra, Borneo and the philippines. The feat seems even more astonishing when you discover that these so called flying snakes have no real or false wings to help them perform it.

One of these aerial acrobats is the paradise tree snake of Borneo. Like all his air minded relatives, he is a Very slender snake with a narrow tail and a rather wide, flat head. His scaly skin is marked with a neat, tweedy pattern of light and dark Specks. He spends his life high in the jungle treetops, where he winds and twines his snaky body around the twigs and slender branches.  more   ,.

When he plans an aerial trip one of these twigs serves him as a launching pad. Perhaps he has eaten up all the food around him, or perhaps he feels an urge to hunt in a different tree or shrub. When such a moment of decision arrives the tree Snake uncoils and launches himself boldly into the air. He lands without bodily damage on a lower branch of the next tree or upon some shrub closer to the ground. He flies, or rather he glides, with his body arched toward the ground. He lands with head upright and immediately coils himself safely around his new twig.

Scientific studies of the so called flying snakes are very scanty. The imagination of ordinary folk seems to have been aroused by the idea, and all kinds of wild stories about flying snakes have been handed around. Like birds, they are said to swoop, bank, turn and hover in the air. The creatures, however, merely glide from tree to tree, and these other fanciful exploits are not true.