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Show Snakes have been on this continent I for a long time. Pterosphenus schu-cheti, schu-cheti, as the fossil snake found in I Cocoa, Alabama, is called by the scientists, sci-entists, livid here from three million ; to ten million yeais ago. Little is known of the evolution of the snake, j however. Among living snakes there j are two tropical families, Ilysiidae and Boidae, of the boa type, which have vestiges of hind legs. This has fbeen suggested as supporting the Biblical account of serpents once having hav-ing a different method of travel. SNAKES DO SOME GOOD A department of agriculture expert who has been studying reptiles declares de-clares that his investigation indicates that snakes are a benefit to the country and should not be killed off indiscriminately. Pine, bull, and gopher go-pher snakes, he says, feed upon mice, rats and other burrowing rodents which destroy grain, foodstuffs, and crops in the fields. Even the rattlesnake rattle-snake is an asset to western farmers through its habit of eating ground squirrels, young prairie dogs and pocket gophers. People should realize re-alize that nature is made up of a system of cheeks and balances, in which some of the snakes play an important part in helping to keep insect in-sect and rodent pests in control. Where these pests are plentiful, the snakes are also found in numbers. The food habits of all kinds of snakes have not yet been investigated, investigat-ed, but several of the reptiles are the farmer's friends and should be protected pro-tected instead of exterminated. |