50 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



Anchises, and which Kennedy has so graphically rendered in 

 English verse as follows, leaves no doubt, but that it is a 

 python that is indicated, and as likely as not our Indian 

 species molurus : — 



Habits. — (a) Haunts ; For the most part the Indian python 

 is a jungle inhabitant. It may be met with in the interior of 

 the densest forest tracts, or in sparser forest growth such as 

 that which clothes the rocky slopes of many low hills. Where 

 jungle is not available it most usually attaches itself to rivers 

 and jheels, especially the former. In jungle areas it is 

 frequently observed in trees and at times at some considerable 

 elevation aloft. It climbs stealthily and well, and having 

 established itself in the branches secretes itself so well that it is 

 no infrequent event for a monkey to come within striking 

 distance, and forfeit its life. By means of its prehensile tail 

 it is capable of suspending itself from branches, nearly all of its 

 body remaining free, and there is no doubt that many an 

 incautious animal comes within reach, and is victimized. 

 Mr. Sharpe, D.S.P., in the Fyzabad District, told me in 1906 

 that he once climbed up into a banyan tree in dense jungle 

 with his shikari, who told him that at that season, when the 

 fruit was ripening, many animals, especially deer, visited these 

 trees to eat the fallen fruit. After having been quiet for some 

 time, he noticed close to him a movement in what he had up 

 till then taken to be an aerial root, but which on closer 

 inspection proved to be a python suspended by its tail, and 

 evidently established there for the same purpose that had 

 actuated the sportsman. I have heard of pythons quartering 

 themselves in hollow trees, and frequenting those on which 

 egrets and night herons roost, to which at night the snake 

 stealthily crept and successfully took toll. 



In water this snake is quite at home, in fact it might be 

 considered semi -aquatic in habit. It swims deftly and 

 strongly, when its inclination prompts such activity, but is 

 often to be observed partially or wholly submerged near the 

 bank of a river, or jheel. As in captivity, it will lie for hours 

 showing nothing but the tip of its snout, which is pushed out 

 to raise the nostrils above the surface, and permit breathing. 

 It can remain beneath the water entirelv for many minutes. 



