540 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVT. 



Striking. — When provoked to strike this viper attaches itself firmly by 

 wrapping its tail and hinder body round a branch, and then with retract- 

 ed head, the forebody freed, and thrown into a broad S it thrusts 

 vehemently forward with open jaws as far as the straightening of the 

 body permits. Mr. Millard in a letter says : "They always retain a hold 

 of their prey after once striking it." Mr. Hampton writes to me that in 

 captivity they wait until their prey passes beneath them, then strike and 

 hold it in the air until dead, or haul it on to the branch and then swallow it. 



Mr. Millard in another letter writes : " I cannot find any one who has 

 ever heard them hiss." Possibly the hiss is too subdued to attract much 

 attention, for Russell in a passage already quoted mentions this snake 

 hissing, and Gunther speaking of the genus says " that they vibrate the 

 tail, and utter a faint hissing sound." 



Poison. — Accounts of the virulence of its poison all agree in ascribing 

 to it a decidedly feeble action on man. Gunther*speaking of the genus 

 says : " Numerous cases are on record which show that the symptoms 

 indicating a general effect on the system were of short duration extending 

 only over the space of from two to forty-eight hours, and confined to 

 vomiting, nausea and fever. After the pain and swelling of the 

 bitten member or spot have subsided, the vicinity round the wound be- 

 comes discolored, mortifies, and is finally thrown off as a black, circular 

 slough, after which health is speedily restored. The bite of larger 

 specimens from 2 to 3 feet long is more dangerous and has occasionally 

 proved fatal." Nicholsonf says of the genus "their bite produces local 

 pain and swelling, but no toxic symptoms." 



Russell X says the peasants who brought it in, affirmed that its power 

 of killing extended only to the smaller animals, not to dogs or 

 sheep ; and that to man its bite caused various disorders, but never death. 

 He substantiates this by experiment : a chicken died, but a dog and a pig, 

 though very ill, did not succumb. Mr. Millard told me that the Revd. 

 F. Dreckman, S.J., who is well acquainted with these snakes, was bitten 

 in the finger by one, and suffered very little pain and inconveni- 

 ence. Major Evans, A.V.D., gives me three instances in his knowledge 

 where men were bitten, and in all cases they recovered. The Burmans, 

 too, assured him when he narrowly escaped being bitten by one in jungle, 

 that its bite would not have proved fatal. Mr. Hampton has also 



* Rept., Brit. Ind., p. 384. t I"d- Snakes, pp. 144-5. 



t Ind. Serp., Vol. l,p. 14. 



