SNAKES OF CEYLON. 51 



Colonel Fife Cookson* says that observations were made at 

 Regent's park, which showed that it could keep entirely 

 submerged for half an hour. I asked the attendant at Cross's 

 Menagerie in Liverpool some years ago to make special 

 observations in this direction, and he told me later that 

 one kept its head below the water for 11 minutes, and 

 remained above 9 minutes subsequently before again retiring 

 below. Another kept below 12 minutes, and another 15 

 minutes. 



If only partially submerged in water in its native haunts, 

 it keeps so still that any part of the body exposed is likely 

 to be taken for a branch or root. My informant at Cross's 

 Menagerie also told me that one kept in its bath from 

 Wednesday till Sunday of one week, and often the sloughing 

 period is passed in their tanks, from which the snake 

 emerges resplendent in its new attire. 



Occasionally the python has been reported at sea, but 

 it is probable that it has drifted thence on a log, or in the 

 current of a flooded river. It shows no special affection for 

 the .sea. 



(b) Disposition .- Our Indian python is one of the most 

 lethargic of snakes, and as such an uninteresting creature in 

 the vivarium. In captivity it passes the day in lazy apathy, 

 sometimes lying upon, or partially encircling, the branch 

 usually put into its cage, sometimes convoluted into a heap on 

 the floor, or as frequently reclining partially or wholly immersed 

 in its bath of water. In any of these attitudes it is familiar 

 enough to every one who has visited the reptile house 

 in our various zoological gardens. It is wont to he for hours 

 together without a movement in spite of the stream of specta- 

 tors peering into its cage, and their repeated attempts, 

 usually in vain, to rouse it to activity by drumming upon 

 the glass, flourishing handkerchiefs, and other objects before it. 

 This apathy many might suppose the outcome of a familiarity 

 which breeds contempt, even in animals that are naturally of 

 a fierce disposition, but even in its natural haunts it seems to 

 behave in very much the same way, exhibiting little if any 



Tiger shooting in the Doon and Ulwar, p. 31. 



