SNAKES OF CEYLON. 155 



for it often puzzles one to know how it can have got on to 

 some of the places from which one dislodges it — the top of a 

 window ledge, the jilmils of a door, the top of the lintel of a 

 door which has become loosened from the masonry, a punkah 

 pole, or curtain rod. Often, too, it will drop from the roof 

 into the verandah amid the family circle, from the covered 

 way to the kitchen, or from the disused punkah pole or cross- 

 bar supporting curtains in the drawing room. I have 

 frequently had opportunities of observing this snake climbing, 

 and find that it can do so with comparative ease even on a 

 vertical plane, especially if the surface is a little rough. Thus, 

 I have many times witnessed it climb up the perpendicular 

 wooden faces of its boxes, the boards being rough from the saw. 

 It clambers with ease, throwing itself into an S -shape, and 

 appearing to balance itself on its tail. As one watches this 

 performance one wonders at the support derived from the tail, 

 expecting every moment to see the snake fall, but no. The 

 caudal extremity resting on the horizontal surface grows less 

 and less, and finally follows the rest of the snake, which 

 adheres vertically wholly unsupported. Now some observers 

 would have us believe that the force which operates in this 

 acrobatic performance is brought about by a muscular effort 

 on the part of the snake, which retracts its abdomen in 

 such a way as to create a vacuum in its body -length, apposed 

 to the surface it is climbing. This, as in the case of an india- 

 rubber cup which has been pressed to exhaust the air, adheres 

 mechanically by the production of a vacuum. I happen on 

 more than one occasion to have seen Lycodon aulicus moving 

 up the glass face of its cage ; it can do so in a wonderful 

 manner till nearly all the body-length has left the floor, but 

 though I have specially looked for it, I have never been able 

 to see the slightest indication of the muscular action referred 

 to above, but have noticed that the whole surface of the 

 abdomen lay pressed against the glass. I have never seen the 

 snake completely succeed in scaling a face of glass, except in 

 the case of two hatchlings that I put into spirit. To my 

 amazement I found one of these still wet from its immersion 

 lying along the face of the jar above the level of the fluid, and 

 here it maintained a firm attachment, so firm, indeed, that it 



