The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite and laughs at his own inability to pronounce that correctly, which Mike Mills kept trying to get him to do. Stipe says he loved Dr. Seuss as a kid but always pronounced his name the wrong way. The song's complete title is not featured in the lyrics, but there is the line "the sidewinder sleeps in a coil" as well as the later line "the sidewinder sleeps on its back". A sidewinder is a species of rattlesnake ("Crotalus cerastes"), and also an antique style of telephone, with a winding handle on the side. The lyrics frequently refer to making and
Italian Aesculapian snake four dark brown stripes. If present, the stripes are of equal width and equidistant. The dorsal scales are smooth. The iris of the eye is red, giving it the common name in Italian of "saettone occhirossi" (red-eyed racer). The natural habitats of "Z. lineatus" are temperate forests, temperate shrubland, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, arable land, pastureland, rural gardens, and urban areas. The Italian Aesculapian snake feeds on lizards, small mammals, and eggs. "Z. lineatus" is oviparous. Italian Aesculapian snake The Italian Aesculapian snake (Zamenis lineatus) is a species of snake in the Colubridae family. "Z. lineatus" is endemic to southern Italy