ON THE COMMON INDIAN S WAKES. 235 



identify the snake he said that he and his Kareen interpreter saw a 

 snake, " about 2^ feet long, sail from a very high tree on one side of 

 the road to a lower one the opposite side." 



In confirmation of these very extraordinary acrobatic feats which 

 I have no doubt many might be inclined to disbelieve is the 

 report made by Shelford of similar performances * This observer 

 relates that three native witnesses in Sarawak made a similar statement 

 on three different occasions independently of one another, and at 

 considerable intervals of time. 



This was to the effect in each case that the snake had been seen to 

 " fly " from some height to the ground beneath. In all cases the 

 snake was reported to have kept its body rigid during this feat, and 

 to have met the ground at an oblique angle. In one case the snake 

 proved to be Chrysopelta ornata, in the second instance a snake of 

 the same genus, viz., C. chrysochlora, and in the third Dendrophis 

 pictus. 



Shelford calls attention to the fact that all these snakes are alike 

 in the peculiar ridged condition of their belly shields, and he made 

 experiments to ascertain the truth of these reports. He says : " A speci- 

 men of Chrysopelea ornata was taken to a height of fifteen to twenty 

 feet, and allowed to fall several times; after one or two false starts 

 the snake was felt to glide from the experimenter's hands, straighten- 

 ing itself out, and hollowing in the ventral surface as it moved, and 

 it fell not in a direct line to the ground, but at an angle, the body 

 being kept rigid the whole time * * *. If the snake was thrown 

 up into the air, it seemed unable to straighten itself out ; it had to be 

 launched, so to speak, from the hands in order to induce it to assume 

 the rigid position." 



He implies therefore that these " flights " are not accidental falls 

 but deliberate voluntary efforts, and suggests that the hollowing of the 

 belly between the two ventral ridges may act mechanically after the 

 manner of a parachute, impeding the action of gravity, and buoying 

 up the creature so as to reduce the momentum with which it would 

 strike the ground. He illustrates this point by comparing the fall 

 of a piece of bamboo bisected longitudinally, and the concave face 

 downwards, with that of a piece of bamboo in its cylindrical form. 



* Proc. Zool. Sue. Lond., 1906. p. 227. 



