726 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY , Vol. XVIII. 



move ;i few inches of its body behind the head. It must have been 

 enduring the most fearful torture but even in this predicament 

 though alert and lively, moving its head and quivering its tongue, 

 it refused to bite things thrust at, or held up to it. In trying to 

 remove it from the rusty prongs that pierced its body, it endured 

 the suffering for some time, but finallv buried its teeth into a mass 

 of fat that had escaped from its wounds. When freed it did not 

 repeat the act, or betray any further vice. I noticed that two speci- 

 mens I had caged together used periodically to grasp one another's 

 bodies in their jaws, one shifting its grasp down the length of the 

 other, as though seeking a favourable spot to commence devouring 

 its mate. 



Many specimens I played with or teased, simply hid the head 

 beneath coils, and refused to move. Some I noticed flattened the 

 hinder part of the body and inflated and deflated themselves anteriorly 

 like many other snakes under excitement, and it is remarkable how 

 expansive the lung must be, for in one specimen, in which marked 

 inflation was noticeable from the 3rd to the 18th twin white arches, 

 it was found upon subsequent dissection that the lung only reached 

 as far back as the 7th twin arches. It very frequently emits the 

 tongue in a leisurely fashion when provoked. Its placid disposition 

 banishes all fear, and tempts one to disregard any precautions in 

 handling it, at least this is my experience. 



I noticed especially in Delhi years ago that Kalian the most 

 intrepid snakecatcher I have ever seen, who collected scores of 

 poisonous snakes every week, treated the krait with supreme indiffer- 

 ence, though he exercised the greatest caution in dealing with 

 Echides. 



Fayrer* says : " In my experience I had always the greatest 

 difficulty to get the cobra, krait, and daboia to bite voluntarily." 

 Nicholsonf calls it a " very inoffensive " suake. GleadowJ says 

 " I have always found it quiet, and not pugnacious." MillardJ 

 remarks that it is "very shy." Colonel Dawson J says, " It is a very 

 .-,hy snake, and rarely bites except in self-defence or when hurt." 

 This is fully exemplified by the behaviour of the snake which 



• Loe. cit., p. 64. 



t Intl., Snakes, p. 147. 



X Iu Epistola. 



