THE NIGHT OR DEMON ADDER 233 



The Night or Demon Adder. 

 {Cmisus rhombeatus.) 



Zulu : Inhlangwana. 



The range of the Night Adder is very widespread in South 

 Africa. Moist, vegetation-covered locahties are its favourite 

 haunts. It is frequently found about and in the habitations of 

 man, owing to its fondness for mice, which haunt dwehings, 

 especially old outhouses, piles of wood, and refuse. It scours the 

 kitchen garden in search of the common garden toad. Many a 

 time I have surprised a Night Adder in my garden in Natal 

 almost choked with the effort to swallow a great fat toad, too 

 large even for the distensible maw of a snake. I found one of 

 these snakes dead one day, with a large toad firmly wedged in 

 its mouth. The reptile, in its efforts to swallow the toad, had 

 evidently stretched its skin so taut that it was powerless to 

 disgorge the victim, and so died of suffocation. The toad was 

 still alive, but in a very feeble condition. I put it aside, but it 

 died shortly afterwards. Toads, although susceptible to the 

 venom of snakes, owing to their sluggish blood-circulation and 

 tenacity of life, sometimes live for days after being bitten 

 by a venomous snake. Frogs, on the contrary, die almost 

 instantly. 



When the Night Adder finds himself in a house in his 

 quest for mice, he seeks to conceal himself in whatever place 

 is handiest. Consequently, where Night Adders are com- 

 mon, as in Natal, it is quite an everyday occurrence to find 

 them in cupboards, under beds, chests of drawers, and various 

 other hiding-places in houses. When turning out lumber from 

 old outhouses, I have often killed a dozen or more Night Adders, 

 and many scores of young ones. 



I have always found these snakes to be exceptionally in- 

 offensive. Unless hurt or irritated by rough handling, or very 

 much frightened, they never attempt to bite. Those which I 

 have kept in captivity became so tame that if lifted up gently 

 they showed no disposition whatever to bite. 



One day I was helping my men to renew some fencing-posts, 

 which those pests the " White Ants " (Termites) had eaten up. 

 Kneeling down, I thrust my hand into a hole from which an old 



