SNAKES OF CEYLON. 153 



jails, and have had it from inside regimental and cantonment 

 hospitals. Mr. Millard tells me he has "frequently had 

 specimens sent to the Museum which have been killed in 

 houses in the Fort at Bombay." Like many other snakes, 

 it likes to insinuate itself into the crevices of loose brickwork, 

 such as the foundations and walls of buildings. Here it 

 conceals itself during the day, emerging at nightfall in quest 

 of food. Along the outer walls skirting the jail at Cannanore 

 I rarely passed without rinding the sloughs of this snake 

 issuing from holes in the face of the masonry, and have often 

 found it in similar situations elsewhere. 



When not established in the safe quarters offered by masonry 

 or a hole in the ground, it coils itself during the day in any 

 convenient dark shelter, beneath the boxes or stores, or 

 among the packages on the shelf in one's storeroom, beneath 

 the discarded bucket or basket behind the stable, beneath 

 one of the flower pots standing in the verandah, in a heap of 

 kunkur beside the road, or stack of bricks or wood, behind or 

 beneath the piles of plant stored in the supply and transport 

 godowns or the Telegraph Office compound, anywhere, in fact, 

 that offers a convenient refuge. In such situations, besides 

 enjoying the semi-darkness so grateful to its tastes, it is 

 brought into convenient association with the very creatures 

 upon which it is wont to prey, the agile but incautious mouse, 

 the slippery skink, and the defenceless little gecko. 



(b) Disposition : The common wolfsnake is a very lively 

 little customer, which usually, on being discovered, slips away 

 hastily if circumstances permit. If pursued, or any attempt 

 made to catch it, or obstruct its path, it strikes out boldly 

 without hesitation, planting its teeth into whatever thwarts 

 its progress, and I have been bitten many times in trying to 

 effect its capture . If in the open, and baulked in its endeavours 

 to escape, it will frequently coil itself into a heap and remain 

 stationary ; and if worried, will hide its head beneath its 

 coils. Often, too, while lying thus, it fixes its coils rigidly, 

 so that one can toss it into the air without it releasing its folds, 

 as one might do a piece of knotted cane. A visit paid to such 

 a specimen in its cage an hour or so later will probably show 

 its courage restored, and it will inflict or endeavour to inflict 



25 6(6)20 



