Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1919 — His “Snakeship’s” Conversation. [ARTICLE]

His “Snakeship’s” Conversation.

That serpents are less mute than we think Is shown by W. H. Hudson In his reminiscent volume of naturalist explorations In the Argentine pampas. He specifies the Phllodryas oestivus—a beautiful and harmless colubrine make, 2% to 3 feet long, marked all over with inky black on a vivid green ground—and states that It not only emitted a sound when lying undisturbed in its den, but several individuals would hold together -a conversation that seemed endless. It was a hissing conversation, though not unmodulated or without considerable variety. “A long sibilation would be followed by distinctly heard ticking sounds, as of a husky-ticking clock, and after 10 or 20 or 30 ticks, another hiss, like a long-expiring sigh, sometimes with a tremble in It, as of a dry leaf vibrating In the wind. No sooner would one cease than another would begin ; and so It would go on, demand and response, strophe and antistrophe; and at Intervals several voices would unite In a kind of long mysterious chorus, death-watch or hiss.”