ADAPTATIONS TO SPECIAL ENDS 149 



" Among other snakes in my laboratory on the day in ques- 

 tion was a ring-hals, which had arrived in a torpid condition 

 from the Orange River Colony. I transferred this snake to a 

 box about 1 5 in. deep, with |-in. wire netting over the top, and 

 placed him in a sunny spot. On my return in the afternoon 

 the snake was active and alert, and as soon as I appeared he 

 struck a defensive attitude and spread his hood. After I had 

 passed his box a couple of times, my attention was arrested by 

 his suddenly lowering his head and drawing in a deep breath, 

 after the manner of a puff-adder. I stopped to look at him 

 with my face about 4 feet above his cage ; when suddenly, with 

 an upward dart of his head, accompanied by a distinct puff or 

 whiff, he blew a jet of saliva right in my face, some of it 

 entering my right eye. My friend Mr. William Anderson, who 

 was standing beside me at the time, observed the glittering jet 

 of liquid shoot from the snake's mouth. By immediately 

 applying treatment to the eye I got off with nothing worse 

 than slight inflammation, which had almost subsided by the 

 morning. 



" A couple of days afterwards I experimented by placing a 

 bell-jar over the wire top of the cage and irritating the snake. 

 As soon as he got excited he blew up a jet of poison each 

 time I approached, which formed a splash of spray on the in- 

 side of the jar. The top of the jar was nearly 2 feet from the 

 wire covering of the cage. At each spitting he drew in a deep 

 breath, and blew out the poison with a puff like the spitting 

 noise made by a small cat or mongoose. His aim was, appar- 

 ently, always directed towards my face, so that by moving my 

 head round to the different sides of the jar sprays of poison 

 were shot on all parts of the glass. 



"Two such sprays, each resulting from a single 'spit,' were 

 measured ; each consisted of about 1 50 small drops, distri- 

 buted in a splash about eighteen to twenty centimetres long and 

 two centimetres wide ; the droplets being close together and 

 partly confluent at one end, presumably that corresponding to the 

 point aimed at, and thinning out towards the other end of the 

 splash. Until I had this experience I was inclined to believe 

 that the venom might be merely projected by the rapid move- 

 ment of the head when the snake tried to strike at an object 

 out of his reach, but I am now convinced that the process is a 



