Category Plants & Animals

               All of us have seen snake charmers playing their pipes before a snake. When a snake charmer plays his pipe, swinging it backwards and forwards or jerking up and down, the cobra raises its head and moves in rhythm with the music. There are many folklore about snake’s love of music. Some snake charmers even claim that they can summon snakes by playing on the pipe. Do snakes really love music?

               The snakes do not have an auditory structure. They have a bony rod called columella auris. This bone extends from the fenestra oxalis to the quadrate bone. This bone has a special structure which helps it to detect the ground vibrations. But it cannot detect vibrations in the air. Due to this a snake detects an approaching ball.

               In order to verify whether snakes can detect the vibrations produced in the air or on the ground, a number of experiments have been conducted with different species of snakes by P.J. Deoras at the Haffkins Institute, Bombay. He put a snake inside a tin box and studied the effect of soft music near the tin box. He found that any sound that caused the tin to vibrate made the cobra to raise its head. He took a snake charmer inside his snake farm and found no response for air borne music. However, it responded to ground music.

               Experiments on five other species were also conducted. And again the findings were that the snakes did not respond air-borne music. However, they responded to the music of drum which creates vibrations in the box or earth.

               In short, it can be said that snakes are very sensitive to sounds that create vibration on the ground. Because of this fact, the snake charmer hits his pipe with the ground to make the vibrations reach the snake. A snake charmer also hits the snake with the pipe and tries to excite him. Actually it moves its body only to keep an eye on the moving pipe.

 

            All vertebrates except man have a tail. According to scientists, there was a time when man also had a tail. But when he stopped using it, it fell into disuse and became extinct. We still have a mark of a tail on our body. Do you know what the usefulness of a tail in different animals is?

            The tail is found in the post-anal part of the body. It has different uses in different animals. In fishes it is surrounded by a tail fin and plays an important part in providing forward thrust. They have different types of tails. These help them in swimming and providing the upward movement.

            In crocodiles and whales the tail acts as a powerful organ for locomotion. In frogs and toads the tail and tail-fin are present only in the larval states and absent in the adult. Crocodiles use their tails for defence and also to attack their enemies. 

               All reptiles possess a well-developed tail. The length of these tails is different in different reptiles. Tortoises and turtles have short tails while lizards have long ones. If somebody attacks a lizard, it can break a part of its tail. It is a defence mechanism. Reptiles perform wriggling movements with the help of their tails. Lizards after sometime regenerate a new tail. In chameleon the tail is quite long. It can be rolled downwards to coil round the branches for extra grip. The tail of snake is small in size. It acts as a storehouse of fat. The tail of the sea snake is small in size and oar-shaped, and helps it in swimming.

               Real tail in birds is extremely short and stumpy. It gives a support for the feathers. Feathers help birds in flying.

               Most mammals have well developed tails. With these they can get rid of flies. Men and apes do not have such tails. Whales have two lobes of tail fin of which one is at right and one, at left. It helps it in swimming. The tails of kangaroos and squirrels act as a balancing organ during walk and leap. During winter season when squirrels hibernate, the hairy tail acts as a blanket. Rabbits use their tails for providing warning signals. Peacocks display their tails to attract the opposite sex. In this way we see that different vertebrates make use of their tails for some purpose or the other.

 

          A crocodile is a large reptile with a long cigar-shaped body, short legs and a powerful tail and jaws. They have a heavy body covered with bony scales. Its pointed snout and long partially exposed sharp teeth distinguish it from an alligator (another species of the same family). A crocodile is generally more aggressive than an alligator and may attack large animals such as deer or even human beings. Caymans and Gavials are the largest living reptiles of this family.

          All the crocodiles are carnivores and live in water. Since their eyes and nostrils are located a little higher than the rest of their head, they can hide in water staying almost completely submerged and still able to breath and watch the movement of their prey. They are particularly successful in catching smaller animals because they can float closely up to their prey without being seen. Once they catch their prey they slowly tear it apart in bits by gripping with the teeth and turning it over and over again. The crocodiles have been seen mysteriously more aggressive when protecting a nest or when the water is drying up. They usually feed on fish, birds and small mammals.

          The crocodiles live in tropical areas throughout the world, usually in swamps or marshes, or along slow-moving rivers. They have webbed feet which help them walk on wet or muddy ground. 

               In the kingdom of birds, nightingale enjoys a unique status for its ability to sing. This quality of nightingale has made it quite popular with poets and no bird has been written of so much by the poets as the nightingale. Aristophanes, the great Greek poet wrote about it in the 4th century B.C. and Keats in the 19th century.

               According to the poets, the nightingale sings only at night  and in almost any season of the year. But this goes against the facts as the bird sings both in the day as well as in the night. Poets had a wrong perception because they could hear it only in the night and not in the day. The reason for this being that the song of nightingale is not audible in the day as it is being overshadowed by the chirping of other birds but it is distinctly heard in the silence of the night. Again, since nightingale is a migratory bird hence its voice is generally not heard throughout the year at a particular place. From season to season, it migrates to different places. 

Continue reading “How is Nightingale distinct from other birds?”