Dorms Love, age 10, of Yardley, Wash., for her question:

What is a sidewinder?

Judging from Andy's mail about the animal kingdom the furry animals are the most popular. Next come the insects and then the snakes. The sidewinder snake, however, is far from popular in the western deserts. You may even hear an old prospector say sidewinder when he wants to use a cuss word. For our desert dwelling sidewinder is s rattlesnake econtly he was honored by having a missile named for him.

Let's forget his poisonous nature for a minute and watch him walk. Of course ,being a snake, he has no legs and cannot walk in the proper sense. But he acts over the soft, slippery sand and he does it as carefully as a ballet dancer. His whole body bends from side to side in a series of loops.

The hone and neck point straight forward in the direction he is travelinrm. Behind the neck the body turns sharply to the right and forms a huge loop, parallel with the rrund. The loop than turns left until it is directly behind the hey d. Next there is another turn to the right. The loop ends in a small curve at the tip of the tail. Seen from above the sidewinder in motion is A big letter S, plus a squiyly tail one and a round heal at the other.

The letter S does not stay long in one position. For the snake is drawing his sinuous boy through these curves. The more you watch the less you see how the trick is done. Unlike other snakes, he does not keep his body flat on the ground as he moves along. Actually, the sidewinder touches the ground at only two points, near the front of the first loop and in the center of the second loop.

The track of the sidewinder is as series of parallel lines made by the two touching points, each track a little farther ahead than the one behind it. You can tell the size of a sidewinder from these tracks. He is as long nsech trick.

You might wonder why the sidewinder chooses this difficult, though graceful, method of traveling through the desert s ke and desert sand is not easy to walk on ‑ not even for a snake. You know yourself how soft sand gives way under your feet and most snakes need firm, solid objects to push themselves along. They cannot, for instance walk over a smooth, slippery pane of Mass. Most resort snakes must build little piles of sand to push against. This takes a lot of enemy and traveling is hard work for them.

The clever sidewinder, however, does not need those little piles of sand to push himself at once he does not sink in, slip or slide. Truly he has discovered a most sensible way of traveling over the desert sand.

It is not wise to watch a sidewinder from close at hand. He is, after all, a rattler. He is deadly and always ready to strike at any warm‑blooded creature within reach. And his bite carries poisonous venom. If not treated, a grown man may die of a sidewinder's bite in a few hours.