78 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



eventually escaped by squeezing itself under the rim 

 of the bell-jar. When the snake is teased it assumes a 

 very characteristic attitude ; the head is more or less 

 concealed under coils of the body, but the tip of the 

 tail is raised in a threatening manner and bears a 

 rough resemblance to a head. 1 In this attitude the 

 red colouring of the tail is displayed to the best ad- 

 vantage and, with the resemblance to a head, serves 

 no doubt to intimidate prospective enemies. The natives 

 of Sarawak aver that the snake has a head at each end 

 of the body and that a bite from either head is very 

 deadly ; I once demonstrated to a Malay the innocuous 

 character of this creature by opening its mouth and 

 forcing it to bite my finger, and showing him the tiny 

 teeth too small to inflict a wound on a moderately 

 thick skin, but I only drew from him the comment 

 that white men were certainly wonderful beings, for 

 they were immune to serpents' venom ! This species 

 does not, like Typhlops, live entirely underground, but 

 occasionally takes to water ; one specimen I found in 

 an old well, and its stomach contained an eel almost 

 as large as itself ; another example in the Sarawak 

 Museum was taken in the act of swallowing a Water- 

 Snake, Fordonia leucobalia. Another species of the same 

 genus, Cylindrophis lineatus, is very rare ; only three speci- 

 mens have been discovered, one in Singapore and two in 

 Sarawak ; it is characterized by two broad red lines 

 running along the back, and by a red head and tail- 

 tip. Xenopeltis unicolor is a beautiful iridescent snake ; 

 an adult specimen observed by Captain S. S. Flower 2 

 used to twist itself, when annoyed, into an "irregular 



1 Flower, P.Z.S., 1899, p. 656. 

 Ibid., p. 657. 



