Bruce Nelson, Age 11, Of  E. Lansing, Mich., for his question:

Which is the world's largest snake?

In July, Andy answered a question about a rattlesnake, and his snaky stony brought more questions. Your faithful reporter said that a rattler hatches from an egg. A loud chorus of faithful readers asked andy if that were true. Andy says to watch for The column coming sept. 16. He plans to report the facts on the birth of a rattlesnake. A spanish explorer in south america reported an anaconda, six feet thick and. 45 Feet long. This snaky story was certainly an exaggeration. The world's biggest snakes Are about a foot thick and maybe 33 feet long. What's more, they are not natives of The south american jungles. The biggest snakes are pythons and their first cousins, the boas.

The biggest Snake in the new world happens to be the anaconda, of south america. He is a boa snake Who may be 2$ feet long. He may be three feet longer than the rock python, africa's Largest snake, and eight feet longer than the diamond python, australia's largest Snake. The title of world's largest snake goes to the reticulated python, alias the regal Python, who dwells in the steamy jungles of malay and the east indies. The word Reticulate means net. The basic color of the handsceae giant is golden brown. His Scaly skin is marked all over with a network of glossy black lozenge shaped figures. A lozenge is shaped like an oval with a slight waist. If he is a big specimen, a Reticulated python may be 33 feet long. When he is not bulging with a recent meal, the body of the regal python is about a Foot thick, and he weighs around 200 pounds. In spite of his bulk, he is a very agile  creature. He slithers through the jungle underbrush, climbs trees and coils gracefully  around the branches. He is a strong swimmer and often drops down from a tree into a stream.

The regal python is a constrictor. He wraps his snaky body coil by coil around his victim and kills by constricting or crushing. He swallows birds and small bungle animals and sometimes deer and wild pigs. It is a fact, says andy,  that the regal python hatches from an egg. The mother snake lays about 100 eggs and coils around them, brooding fry 60 to 80 days until they hatch. The youngsters are about two feet long.  There axe about 2400 different snakes in the world, but none of them is as large As some of their whopping ancestors. The fossilized bones of a snake 35 feet long Were found in patagonia, and a snake fossil 50 feet long was found in Egypt. Both of these fellows were living 50 million years ago when the ancestors of the horse were no bigger than lassie.