THE MANX SHEARWATEK ON SKOMER ISLAND. 367 



possible that, where the Snakes are systematically hunted and 

 caught, some of their pursuers are fatally bitten ; and, on the 

 other hand, it has been officially suggested that when rewards 

 are freely given for killing Snakes, some of the ingenious natives 

 deliberately breed them, and live upon the profits derived from 

 this new kind of stock. The number of cattle killed by Snakes 

 is so small that some instruction is derivable from it. It is 

 certain that cattle must be greatly exposed to attack from Snakes 

 whilst grazing in the jungles : the Snakes doubtless avoid the 

 cattle ; and similarly any Snake will try to get out of a man's 

 way if it can do so, with the exception of the Ophiophagus, who 

 is credited with the habit of attacking men. The mortality from 

 snake-bite in Bengal is also much larger among women than 

 among men. They are usually bitten in the early morning, 

 when they go out unseen before daylight, either to fetch wood 

 from the faggot-stack, or for some other domestic purpose. 

 During the rainy season, when nearly all the rice-fields are 

 under water, the Snakes take refuge on the higher plots of 

 ground on which the villages are built, and they hide themselves 

 in the little wood-stacks and granaries in the courtyards of the 

 houses ; whilst, not unfrequently, they take up their abode in 

 the house itself, where they are allowed to dwell with impunity, 

 and sometimes fed with milk, until, on some unlucky day, the 

 wife treads accidentally on the Snake in the dark, and it turns 

 upon her and bites her. From the bite of a full-grown Cobra 

 death ensues in a very few minutes ; and the natives have no 

 such remedies at hand as English science might use, but they 

 put a vain faith in the fanciful charms and incantations 

 recommended by their priests. 



THE MANX SHEARWATER ON SKOMER ISLAND. 

 By Richard M. Barrington, M.A. 



For over twenty years I have been visiting out-of-the-way 

 islands on our western and southern coasts, from North Eona 

 to St. Kilda, and thence southwards to the Skelligs and Blaskets : 

 not merely flying visits, but living on them for days and weeks 

 at a time in the height of the breeding-season. I have scarcely 

 missed a year. Notwithstanding this I have been slow to record 



