Snake

A grass snake.

A snake is a legless scaled reptile. Snakes slither on the ground.

All snakes are carnivorous, and most of them are predators. A snake hunts its prey and kills it either with a venomous bite or by smothering it (snakes of this kind are called constrictors).

The snake's tongue is bifid, meaning that it is split in two at the edge. The snake uses its tongue to collect odours that it analyses with organs placed in its mouth. The snake "tastes the air", in a kind of way, to detect prey by smelling.

Some species

• the boa and the anaconda
• the python
• the adders and pit vipers
• the cobra
• the ratsnakes

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