Racer.Did You Know? The racer gets its name from the fast escape it can make, slithering slith·er v. slith·ered, slith·er·ing, slith·ers v.intr. 1. To glide or slide like a reptile. See Synonyms at slide. 2. To walk with a sliding or shuffling gait. 3. through the grass. Like some other snakes, the racer can imitate the rattlesnake rattlesnake, poisonous New World snake of the pit viper family, distinguished by a rattle at the end of the tail. The head is triangular, being widened at the base. The rattle is a series of dried, hollow segments of skin, which, when shaken, make a whirring sound. , which is poisonous. If the racer feels cornered, it can vibrate its tail in dry leaves to make a buzz that sounds like the shake of a rattler's tail. The racer eats small animals such as moles, birds, and frogs. People used to think this snake was a constrictor--that it killed by coiling its body around its prey. Some other snakes kill that way, but the racer does not. It swallows live prey. Try This: The racer can mimic a rattling sound. Try to make the sounds of some animals by using your voice or things in your home. For example, imitate the voice of the green frog green frog Rana clamitans. (a deep twang, like a banjo banjo, stringed musical instrument, with a body resembling a tambourine. The banjo consists of a hoop over which a skin membrane is stretched; it has a long, often fretted neck and four to nine strings, which are plucked with a pick or the fingers. ) by plucking a rubber band stretched loosely across the top of a box or a plastic-foam tray. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion