A RINGHALS FEIGNS DEATH. } 193 
A RINGHALS GIVES BIRTH TO YOUNG. 
The Ringhals gives birth to young, which are of the same 
colour as the adult, viz. black with wavy brown cross-bands. 
One in the Port Elizabeth Museum gave birth to as many as 
twenty-eight. Immediately after being born, the young, if 
irritated, rear, expand their hoods, and attempt to bite. Their 
poison glands are active, and capable of secreting venom. The 
bite of a baby Ringhals two hours after birth will kill a fowl. 
The number of young given birth to by a large female Ringhals 
varies from about thirty to over sixty. Sixty-three is the largest 
number I have known. 
A RINGHALS FEIGNS DEATH. 
Ringhals are the only snakes I know which actually feign 
death. I have killed, captured, and kept in captivity nearly 
all the other South African snakes, but have never seen any 
attempt to feign death in this way, except with this species of 
snake. That the Ringhals does so I am certain. Mr. Williams, 
of Boomslang fame, captured an adult Ringhals. When handling 
it, the snake suddenly became limp. It was placed on the 
ground, and immediately turned over and lay on its back. We 
moved off and hid. Presently it turned over on its abdomen, 
cautiously raised its head, looked round, and then began moving 
off. We captured it, and again it feigned death. We presently 
placed it on the ground upon its back, and once more 
secreted ourselves. After the lapse of five or ten minutes, the 
snake again showed signs of life, turned over, looked around 
~and then endeavoured to escape. This clever ruse, however, is 
not usual with them. I have observed it only occasionally. 
As a rule, the Ringhals will fight bitterly to the last, and in 
captivity he is ever ready to deal a deadly blow. A series of 
photographs of a Ringhals simulating death are included in the 
Addenda at the end of the book. 
A medical correspondent writes me as follows— 
“In a fatal case of Ringhals’ bite, where the patient could not 
swallow, I used whisky subcutaneously (under the skin), which 
only rallied the insensible patient’s pulse for a short time ; but 
hypodermic injections of one-tenth grain doses of strychnine had 
a better and more lasting effect, as he seemed on the point of 
recovering consciousness. After twenty-eight hours’ treatment, 
fo) 
