SNAKES OF CEYLON, 137 



during nineteen months' residence, but when the river over- 

 flowed its banks and flooded the country for miles in August, 

 1906, I had eight specimens brought to me in fourteen days, 

 all from the inundated area. It by no means haunts rivers 

 to the exclusion of tanks and similar collections of water, nor 

 does it show a greater liking for flowing water, for in Bangalore , 

 where it was very common, it was found haunting the small 

 collections of water in the Lai Bagh and other similar pools 

 elsewhere. The snake men there denied that it was a water 

 snake, and said they never found it actually in the water, but 

 at the edge of the pools, where the dank soil favoured a 

 luxuriant growth. They also frequently encountered it in 

 the foliage and lying along the stems of the bamboo brush near 

 the water. In the rains, I think it leaves the vicinity of 

 pools and wanders further afield, there being abundant 

 moisture in the grass and weeds that spring up everywhere. I 

 have met with it in the grass at some distance from water 

 during the monsoon, and remember capturing one which 

 crossed the pitch at Berhampur, while a cricket match was in # 

 progress. Ferguson remarks that one he had in captivity in 

 Trivandrum was never seen to enter the chatty of water 

 provided for it, and Mr. Ingleby mentions that a caged 

 specimen he had invariably buried itself in the sand at the 

 bottom of its cage with nothing but the extremity of its head 

 and its eyes sticking out. 



(b) Disposition : Though Cantor remarks that the species 

 is very fierce, and Ferguson quotes Ingle by 's words to the 

 same effect, I have invariably found it very much the reverse ; 

 in fact, I know of no Indian snake with a more inoffensive 

 nature and nicer manners. I am not courageous where 

 snakes are concerned, and object strongly to being bitten 

 even by species that I know to be harmless, so I am always 

 chary of handling them, but this species, like the buff -striped 

 keelback (Amphiesma stolata), is so remarkably gentle 

 that I pick it up fearlessly, and have never been struck 

 at or bitten. Even the two I had conjoined in Bangalore 

 permitted my handling them and making close investigation, 

 without resenting the interference further than to try and 

 elude my grasp. 



23 6(6)20 



