554 HABITS OF A SMALL SNAKE IN CAPTI'VaTT, 



On several occasions I placed it in a large flat disli filled "witli 

 water, but it always made desperate attempts to get out, although 

 swimming with great facility ; and if a piece of stone were placed in 

 the dish, it wovild crawl on to it in a moment. I have seen these 

 snakes, when free, swimming rapidly in small streams and pools, but 

 probably they only take to the water in quest of aquatic larvae and 

 other prey. Whilst it was swimming in the dish, I could not detect 

 the slightest change in the cylindrical foi-m of its body, although a 

 lateral flattening is said to take place in species of the genus Tropi- 

 donotus during natation, by the peculiar mobility of the ribs. 



After the lapse of three or four weeks, I opened the bottles almost 

 every evening and allowed the little snake to have a walk upon the 

 table, a row of books in iipright position being placed around this to 

 prevent the snake from escapmg. It could easily,, no doubt, have 

 climbed over this barrier. It never did so, however, but kept travelling 

 round and round against the sides of the books, and very rarely ventured 

 across the open table. I frequently placed my hand in its path and 

 let the creature glide over it, when the part played by the ventral 

 scales in assisting the animal's progression became very perceptible. 

 This is felt more especially if the thin skin of the back of the hand 

 be exposed to the action of these ventral plates. 



After the animal had been allowed, as described above, to take its. 

 first walk upon the table, it tried to avoid re-entering its nest, and 

 constantly turned aside from the open moxiths of the bottles placed 

 before it. On my attempting to guide it into one of these by means 

 of a long pen-holder that I happened to have in my hand, the creature 

 became defiant — raising its head and arched neck above the table, 

 and opening its mouth to the widest extent. Two or three smart 

 taps uj»on its head, however, soon caused its courage to collapse, and 

 in a moment it beat a retreat and darted into its bottle to hide itself 

 amongst the grass. A somewhat similar skirmish ensued on the two 

 or three succeeding evenings, when the time for retiring had arrived ; 

 but after that, it never attempted resistance ; and whenever I wished 

 to make the creature re-enter its bottle, I had only to rap sharply on 

 the table, or pretend to strike at it with the pen-holder, to make it 

 immediately betaJ^e itself to its grassy hiding-place. On witnessing 

 this, night after night, I could well understand the asserted teachable- 

 ness of the Indian snakes of which so many curious anecdotes are 

 related. I had also another proof of its intelligence. During ths 



