Louis Reavis, age 13, of San Leandro

What makes a snake dart out his tongue?

An alert snake will often rear his head, open his mouth and dart a little forked tongue this way and that. Some people find the darting tongue of the serpent a fearsome thing, but it is quite harmless.

The sense organs of the snake are very different from ours. He hears by sensing vibrations on the ground. He smells with his tongue. As it darts back and forth, his little tongue is gathering in samples of the air and taking them to be analyzed by sensitive nerve cells inside his mouth. He is smelling by tasting.