64 



left ; they cannot, however, be extracted, as they 

 are firmly attached to the maxillary bone. 



Wrap your hand in a cloth and allow the 

 viper to strike at and bite you as often as it wishes, 

 but do not irritate it. When it has become tired 

 of striking at you, you can handle it, and the 

 taming is then merely a matter of time. In about 

 live or six weeks the fangs will have grown again, 

 but by that time the taming will be complete, so 

 that their removal will be unnecessary. 



With the Opisthoglypha the removal of the 

 fangs is unnecessary, as their poison is so slight, 

 and the grooved fangs, being at the back of the 

 mouth, seldom enter you when they bite. 



Nearly all the Ceylon snakes do well in 

 captivity, with the exceptions already mentioned 

 and the Uropeltidae and some varieties of the 

 smaller Colubrinae, Aspidura, Oligodon, Polyo- 

 dontophis, and Lycodon. 

 Feeding Although it is a common belief that snakes 



deadlnrmais. ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ things that they kill themselves, I find 

 ' that they will eat dead food provided that not the 

 least decomposition has set in and the animal has 

 not been at all cut about. When first captured 

 snakes show a marked dislike for ready-killed food, 

 but will swallow it when forced to do so by hunger, 

 and when they have once done so will always be 

 ready to take it in the future. The intervals 

 during which a snake can go without food is 

 extraordinary. I have known a python live without 

 food for as much as six months, while a cobra will 

 sometimes refuse food for a month. During these 

 intervals of fasting the snake lives on a reserve 

 supplv of fat which surrounds the stomach. 



Before skin-shedding a snake will refuse food 

 so as to be able to get its skin off easily, but 

 sometimes instinct gives way to greediness, and I 

 have often had snakes die through eating a large 



