128 BEAUTIFUL UGANDA 



pithecus, and another species of the same genus which is known as 

 the White-nosed monkey. This is a charming creature of bright 

 colors — chestnut, blue-black, yellow-green, and gray, with a snow- 

 white tip to its nose. I believe its specific name is rufoviridis. Bright- 

 colored turacos are even more abundant in these Uganda forests, and 

 there are green and red love-birds, gray parrots with scarlet tails, 

 and the usual barbets, hornbills, shrikes, fly-catchers, bee-eaters, roll- 

 ers — all of them birds of bright plumage or strange form. 



"There are other forest creatures that are not harmless sources 

 of gratification to the eye. Lying among the dead leaves on the 

 path may be the dreaded puff-adder, with its beautiful carpet-pattern 

 of pinkish-gray, black, lemon-yellow, and slaty blue, and with its 

 awful head containing poison glands more rapidly fatal than those 

 perhaps of any other viper. 



"Numerous pythons, from fifteen to twenty feet in length (gener- 

 ally disinclined to attack human beings, however), are coiled on the 

 branches of the trees, or hang by their tails like a pendent branch', 

 swaying to and fro in the wind. Their checkered patterns of brown 

 and white are rendered very beautiful sometimes by the bloom of 

 iridescence which imparts rainbow colors into the scales when the 

 skin is new. 



"The natives think nothing of laying hold of the wild python, 

 who may perhaps have coiled himself up in some hole, and however 

 much the snake hisses and protests, it seldom seems to bite. Yet 

 these snakes could crush a man between their folds, and do crush 

 and devour numbers of sheep and goats. They seem, however, very 

 loath to attack mankind and will allow extraordinary liberties to be 

 taken with them. The vividly painted puflF-adders are as common as 

 the pythons, and although their bite is absolutely deadly, they, too, 

 seem too sluggish to attack unless by some blunder you tread on 

 them and wait to see the consequences. 



"Therefore the snakes are far less an annoyance or an impedi- 

 ment to the exploration of these forests than the biting ants. These 

 creatures are a veritable plague in moist, hot regions where there is 

 abundant vegetation. I suppose they are sometimes at home and resi- 

 dent in their underground labyrinths, but they are a restless folk, 



