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Sarasota News Leader November 23, 2012 November 2, 2012 are analyzed and interpreted, the snake acts according to the processed data. That's im- pressive! So is the male's rapidly flickering tongue display when he seeks to charm a fe- male into mating. Did you know that snakes can regurgitate their food? They don't do it often, but here's how it works: The snake can distend its jaws and open its mouth up to 150 degrees (people can do only 45 degrees) and swallow whole a young rat or a marsh hare — prey that appears way too big for its small mouth and slim body. The snake is now contently lying around with this huge meal in its bulging intestines and feeling groggily sated, as though it had eat- Page 59 en the entire Thanksgiving turkey, when sud- denly it senses danger. Even Napoleon's army could not march on its belly if it were that overly stuffed, so the snake vomits its hefty meal and now is able to make a fast retreat. The expression "speak with forked tongue," meaning, "to lie," was coined by Native Amer- ican tribes. Liars are not to be trusted. Amer- ican colonists and government officials often took great care in negotiating with tribal lead- ers to assure them they spoke with "straight," not forked, tongues. Other times, they spoke with forked tongues. In 1833, a small, non-representative group of Cherokee Indians was tricked into signing A Black Racer has distended its jaws in preparation for vomiting its most recent meal. File photo