Show COUNT ITS SCALES SCALEr TO IDENTIfY SNAKE NEW YORK July 22 A A great load has been taken off the minds of Frank Franl FrankA A A. A Ditmars of the Bronx zoo and his hia associates In the snake house At last after more than two weeks of research and discovered discos discos' worry they have ered the name of that mysterious snake the the one that blows s itself up like a Zeppelin and does the grapevine twist In it its cage when when visitors are around The unidentified snake arrived at the zoo on the morning of Sunday July 2 2 The only clue to its identity was its habit of blowing itself up like Ilke a rubber balloon and then emitting the compressed compressed com corn pressed air with a noise like Ilke an automobile automobile automobile auto auto- mobile tire when when it is punctured It was was- very long and slender and could outdo any modern modem dancer In the matter of muscular contortions A name was imperative however however so Curator Ditmars made up his mind to find one before Col Roosevelt came along and recognized It The he snake ake by the way came from South America Ditmars has spent the time since July 2 perusing books on snakes and other books and pamphlets and periodicals periodIcals period period- but in vain until yesterday when he found an old volume at the Bronx fre free public library It was entitled South American Snakes The au author au- au author thor explained that all aU reptiles south of the Panama canal can be differentiated differentiated differentiated by the number of scales on their back like Ilke a fish All Ail that is necessary Is to count the scales and nd then compute compute com corn the genealogy by the aid of logarithms logarithms log log- and an Indexed table on page Counting a snakes snake's scale ecale is isa a hard Job especially when as in the case o of this one It is is' n not t known whether the reptile Is poisonous But Curator Ditmars Ditmars Dit Dit- Ditmars mars was determined and he impressed four keepers Into service yesterday morning and held the South American visitor down while three more assis assis- assistants assistants tants With adding machines stood by and registered the scales as they were counted At that the curator admitted admitted admitted admit admit- ted later the task would have been Impossible Impossible Im mm- possible if the snake had not puffed Itself up so with rage that every scale stood on end making it vastly easier to keep track of them After Arter an hours hour's work they learned that the snake had scales Then they looked it up In the book and the name was discovered The snake will willbe willbe be christened in a few days as soon as Invitations can be printed Its name according to the book ig i Sulphurous Sulphurous Sulphurous Sul Sul- |