N THE COMMON INDIA N SNA KES. 231 



I am able to support both parties, for I have seen it high in a tree 

 on a naked limb, and on several occasions on bushes, or on the 

 trellis work about tennis courts and verandahs. I never met it on 

 the ground myself, but many of the specimens brought me were 

 reported on the ground. I have not the least doubt that the species 

 is essentially arboreal in habit, but this does not prevent it making 

 frequent excursions to the ground either in search of a fresh feeding 

 area, or in the pursuit of the incautious quarry which its keen 

 vision has detected from its exalted station amid the branches 

 overhead. 



It is only natural that it should be more frequently encountered 

 on the ground, because the eyes of the pedestrian are directed below 

 the level of his head, even at his feet. Men other than birds-nesters, 

 fern and orchid hunters, and such like do not gaze much aloft, and 

 the snake reclining along a branch or on the top of a trelliswork 

 even about one's own height, will frequently escape detection though 

 but a few feet or even inches away. 



The very fact that Cantor and Stoliczka in unison with other obser- 

 vers mention that geckoes are the principal food seems to me to refute 

 their suggestion that Chrysopelea is terrestrial in habit, for geckoes 

 are eminently arboreal. It is to be noted also that all the food 

 partaken of, other than geckoes, is of a nature to be obtained by 

 climbing only. Cantor's inclusion of frogs in their dietary does not 

 vitiate this remark, for though he does not say so, the species taken 

 may have been arboreal forms only. 



Chrysopelea is not infrequently found about, and actually 

 inside habitations. Flower mentions this, and Evans and I had 

 similar experiences in Burma. I well remember in Colombo, too, 

 one that had taken up its quarters in an old packing case which was 

 full of straw and other packing material. A cooly was ordered to 

 clear this out, and stepped into the box to carry out his orders. His 

 exit reminded one of an incautious bather who has stepped into over- 

 hot water. The alacrity of movement so foreign to the cooly's nature 

 was explained by the subsequent discovery of a snake of this species. 



Disposition. — Very divergent views again have been expressed on 

 this point. Cantor remarks on the gentleness of the species, whilst 

 Flower on the other hand says " Chrysopelea ornata is the fiercest 

 snake I have met. Under circumstances when most snakes, harmless 



