AFRICAN REPTILES 171 



were not so common as in the southeastern part 

 of the United States. 



The general interest in snakes is shown by 

 the great number of questions asked me, and I 

 might say the first one invariably is: "Did 

 you see many snakes?" Most people are pos- 

 sessed with a desire to learn something of this 

 group of truly wonderful animals, which in the 

 next breath they characterise as loathsome, 

 uncanny, and repulsive. This feeling is born 

 in man, civilised and uncivilised. Our porters 

 feared them and used as much caution in killing 

 a harmless species as they did when attacking a 

 poisonous one. They never brought us a snake 

 without exhibiting a certain amount of childish 

 heroism, and when a group of boys was seen 

 bringing in a snake one always knew that it was 

 dead, very much dead, and that its head, if it 

 had one, was pounded to a pulp. 



In The Journal of the East African and Uganda 

 Natural History Society, Mr. C. W. Hobley 

 states that there are forty-one species of snakes 

 in British East Africa, of which ten are poison- 

 ous. There are several species of cobras that 

 eject a poisonous fluid at an enemy. When this 

 fluid gets into one's eyes it has no worse effect 



