A POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 781 



pidonntus and Dendrophis (Dendrelaphis, F. W.) — both brown snakes 

 — have remained on the dead branch." 



Often gazing up into trees a movement in the foliage twenty or more 

 feet above drew my attention to a snake whicli when shot proved to 

 be this specieF. 1 encountered it more than once in holes in trees, 

 sometimes detecting the nvAe \'um tie grcur.d level with its head 

 peering foith, or when aloft investigating a likely hole for a bird's 

 nest. Under the latter circun)stances a cane thiust into the hole and 

 briskly stirred about effected its exit. Once the snake vacated its 

 quarters so hastily that it fell to the ground. On one occasion in 

 Colombo, 1 discovered one in the open, and pursued it but it got 

 into grass, and disappeared beneath a log. With some difficulty the 

 log was overturned, but the snake could not be seen, and yet the ground 

 was such that it was impossible for it to have escaped in any direction 

 unseen. After a consi lerable search a narrow hole was discovered in 

 the log in which the snake proved to have taken refuge. On more 

 than one occasion I have found its slongh entwined among the twigs 

 of a crow's nest, which it had evidently visited with the intention of 

 disencumbering itself of a worn-out vestment, as the slough was per- 

 fect or nearly so. On one of these occasions 1 found the snake in a 

 hole in the same tree, and matched it with the slough. 



It not infrequently comes to the ground, and I have often flushed 

 one near the base of a tree, and seen it disa])pear up the trunk like a 

 flash befoie J had tijne to recover the start that such an encounter always 

 gives me. Dr. Henderson, too, remarks in a letter to me that he thinks 

 it visits the ground more often than the whip-snake (D. mycterizans). 

 It frequently clambers into the creepers about bungalows, and from 

 here creeps on to the tiles. 



Disposition. — Though Giinther* says of it " When old it is rather 

 ferocious and bites readily " my experience goes to show that it is a 

 timid snake, usually making off with great despatch when alarmed. 

 I have never been struck at by the specimens I have met face to 

 face, or rudely evicted frcm holes in trees. The specimens I have 

 handled, too, have never attempted to bite me, but it gives me little 

 chance of ascertaining its temper, for if liberated with the object of 

 being played with, it takes advantage of its release so precijjitately* 

 and moves with such speed, that the captive of one minute has regained 



♦ Eept, Brit. India, p. 2y7. 



