Tale of a Tail - A rat fed to a pet snake as breakfast yesterday made a breakfast of the snake's tail. Today about seven inches of the snake's tail is swathed in bandages. Above Lyle Emmens, 3 1/2 consoles the snake, Black Beauty, and shows where it was bitten. Black Beauty, an 8ft 6in long carpet snake, is the pet of Llyle's sister, Jane Emmens, 13, of Balmoral. Caught in the Northern Territory, the snake has been caged at the Emmens home for two months and hasn't eaten any of the tempting delicacies offered him since then. June 02, 1955.