SNAKES 353 



or, in so far as my own experience goes, in any part 

 of the recent Gangetic delta. It is unequivocally 

 a very rare snake there. Whilst there was never 

 any difficulty in obtaining local specimens of cobras, 

 banded kraits, and Russell's vipers for exhibition at 

 Alipur, specimens of the common krait were very 

 rarely acquired, and then invariably as importations 

 from places at some distance, and either outside 

 or on the very confines of the newest alluvium. 

 They seem to belong to that group of animals that 

 finds the conditions present in the great swamp 

 uncongenial, and which cannot be fairly regarded as 

 indigenous merely because stray immigrants from 

 it may occasionally wander in from neighbouring 

 but higher and dryer regions. My friend, Mr 

 Daley, Assistant Civil Surgeon of the twenty-four 

 Parganas, has recently recorded the occurrence of 

 two kraits from Budge-Budge, but their occurrence 

 so far out into the recent alluvium may very likely 

 have been due to accidental importation by boats. 

 It has been already noted that such importation 

 may account for the occasional appearance of hama- 

 dryads near Calcutta and there can be no question 

 that it must have come into play in the case of a 

 specimen of Python reticulatus which once reached 

 the Zoological Garden at Alipur from Midnapur. 



In so far as their venomous properties are con- 

 cerned, kraits may be regarded as feeble cobras, as 

 they are usually of comparatively small size, and 



