PATCHING A SNAKE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19996, 13 January 1927, Page 5

PATCHING A SNAKE.

OPERATION AT ZOO. COULD NOT MATCH PATTERN. A really poisonous snake at tho London Zoo had its skin patched recently—a clever, neat operation done as efficiently as the patching of a punctured type (states the London Daily News). The snake, which is one of the night tree snakes from the Malay States, seems to have been involved in domestic argument, for he was found with a bad bite half-way down his Bft length, and the female snake was held to be guilty. As an Imperial boa was found dead at the same time, the authorities decided that the best way to minister to the punctured tree snake was at patch his raw wound with a piece of the skin from the dead snake. The tree snake is black with yellow transverse stripes—a sort of wasp-mixture in colours. The Imperial Boa was not quite of the same tone, but snakes who are patched cannot insist on absolutely invisible mending. Still, it will not be too noticeable when healed. Collins, tho head keeper of the reptiles, who is a wizard with snakes, gripped the wriggling eight feet with his snake-proof gloves, took it to tho sanatorium, and then Dr John Beattie, the Zoo anatomist, grafted a patch of new skin about three inches long, on to the snake’s wound. Held in a firm grip, the snake was quite good while he was being mended. A cotton bandage was then wound securely round the. repair, and the snake was taken home. Reaching home, he gazed fo ra moment at his bandage, looked round to see if anyone had noticed his patch, and then curled himself into comfortable coils and dropped oil to sleep.