Myron Mears Jr., age 10, of Keen, N.H. for his question:
WHAT IS A PIT VIPER?
A viper is any one of a group of poisonous snakes. Vipers have a pair of long, hollow fangs in their upper jaw. Many of them have a deep hollow in the side of the head, a little lower than the eye and in front of it. Snakes with this hollow, or pit, are pit vipers.
A poisonous viper without a pit is called a true viper. True vipers live in Africa, Europe, Asia and the East Indies. Pit vipers live in the Americas, the East Indies, Asia and Europe east of the lower Volga River.
Of every 100 snakes, only about 8 are vipers. And half of the vipers have the pit snake is either a pit viper or a coral snake. Rattlesnakes are pit vipers and are easy to know by their rattles. The only other pit vipers are the water moccasin and the copperhead.
Coral snakes have bright bands of red, yellow and black. They live in tropical South America and in some warm regions of the United States and Mexico. Some harmless snakes look much like coral snakes.
Two facts will help you identify these snakes. In coral snakes, the snout is usually black and the red and yellow bands are next to each other. In harmless snakes, the snout is red and the yellow and red bands are separated.
In most cases there is little reason to fear snakes. In coral snakes, the snout is usually black and the red and yellow bands are next to each other. In harmless snakes, the snout is red and the yellow and red bands are separated.
In most cased there is little reason to fear snakes. About 2,400 kinds of snakes are known. And remember that only about 8 out of 100 can be dangerous to man.
The facial pit of the pit viper is connected with the brain by a well developed nerve. The nerve, a sense organ, is highly sensitive to heat. It helps the pit viper to locate and secure its warm blooded prey.
A viper's poison is formed in special glands. The hollow fangs then carry it into the victim's body the way a hypodermic needle injects serum.
All vipers can be dangerous to man, but many of the small kinds rarely, if ever, kill anyone with their bite. Certain kinds of large vipers are so harmless that they will not bite unless someone teases or annoys them.
Vipers have a head much broader than the neck, and eyes with catlike pupils, but so do many other snakes. Vipers, therefore, cannot be recognized with any degree of certainty by the shape of the head and pupils. Moat vipers have thick bodies and rather short tails.
The common viper, or adder, is the only poisonous reptile of Great Britain. Other familiar true vipers include the Gaboon viper and puff adder of Africa and Russell's viper of Asia and the East Indies.
Most true vipers bear their young alive.
A sacred ceremony of the Hopi Indiana of northeastern Arizona is called the snake dance. It lasts nine days during August each year. Near the end of the ceremony, Indians called snake priests dance with live rattlesnakes in their mouths.
As far as is known, no snake priest has ever been killed while handling the rattlesnakes. Some persons say the snakes' venom or poison is removed before the public dance begins.