174 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



tree, bush, or habitation in which it may not take up its abode. 

 It is quite at home in the proximity of man, and is to be met 

 with in the gardens of populated areas within our largest cities 

 almost as plentifully as in the more tranquil quarters of the 

 country. In such localities, in deference to man's hostile 

 inclinations, it is forced to retire during the day into some 

 secure retreat, commonly taking up its abode in an anthill, 

 drain, or other convenient hole in the compound, or even in 

 the outhouses, or bungalow itself. Like other snakes, it loves 

 old masonry, and is often flushed from, or seen retiring into, 

 the crevices and crypts furnished by old walls or brick wells. 

 In Rangoon, with the aid of a bicycle lamp to illuminate the 

 gloom of the little galleries left for drainage purposes in the 

 faces of the fort Walls, I frequently found one coiled up, and 

 provoked it to a speedy exit. In the bungalow it may tenant 

 the basement, but not infrequently finds its way up into the roof , 

 where it may reside above the ceiling cloth, and though few 

 may deem it as such, it is certainly entitled to the considera- 

 tion of a Welcome friend. The late Chaplain of Cannanore, 

 the Reverend R. B. Redding, told me that once when in 

 conversation with *a lady, upon whom he was calling, a 

 scampering was heard overhead on the ceiling cloth, and a rat 

 fell through a hole on to the floor. It was closely followed by 

 the head and much of the body of a large snake, which, 

 however, managed to withdraw itself. It is more than 

 probable that this was a ratsnake. 



Removed from man's immediate environment I believe it 

 realizes there is no occasion for such prison accommodation as 

 populous localities thrust upon it, and here it has free scope to 

 indulge its diurnal inclinations. In Cannanore snipe shooting 

 I very frequently encountered it in broad daylight, leisurely 

 pursuing its quest for luncheon, and when not actually on the 

 move, I often found it coiled asleep in the paludal Vegetation, 

 or beneath a bush. Again, on two or three occasions when 

 stepping into paddy fields at dawn, I have seen it coiled up on 

 the heaps of decaying Vegetable matter, which represented 

 the remnants of last year's crop and weeds, suggesting that it 

 had taken up these quarters overnight. 



