A POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 781 



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



more feet above drew my attention to a snake which when shot 



proved to be this species. I encountered it more than once in holes 



in trees, sometimes detecting the snake from the ground level with 



its head peering forth, or when aloft investigating a likely hole 



for a bird's nest. Under the latter circumstances a cane thrust 



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, I 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 considerable 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 



slough 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 perfect or nearly so. On 



one of these occasions I 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 disappear up the trunk like 

 a flash before I had time 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 

 (B. mycterizans). It frequently clambers into the creepers about 

 bungalows, and from here creeps on to the tiles. 



Disposition. — Though Griinther* 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 from holes in trees. The specimens 1 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 precipitately, 

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

 regained its liberty the next, and is lost among the branches of I 



Rept. Brit. India, p. 2'J7. 



