466 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



snake hung on to him so that it had to be removed by forcibly 

 prizing open the jaws. Sometimes after a bite a drop or 

 more of venom may be seen on the skin of the bitten subject 

 which may be wiped off without gaining access to the punc- 

 tures inflicted. More rarely poison is shaken off in the form 

 of a spray or jet by the forcible thrust forward of the snake, 

 which may fail to reach the object of its attack. 



I have on more than one occasion witnessed this with 

 jugglers who unconcernedly wiped away the poison emitted. 

 In the Bombay Natural History Journal* Mr. Goring Jones 

 reported a cobra at Mandalay striking at Lieut. Gibson who 

 was bending down near the snake. He was not actually 

 struck, but had poison ejected into his eye, much swelling 

 and pain following. A hospital assistant of mine, whilst 

 trying to dislodge a cobra that had taken refuge in the wall of 

 his garden, had a jet of poison ejected into his face. Mr. 

 Kinnear tells me that in our Society's rooms it is a matter of 

 common observation that cobras " spit " at spectators and 

 leave a spray on the glass. One may presume that some 

 such incident caused Boie to christen one variety of our Indian 

 cobra sputatrix (spitter). The habit is well known among 

 certain African cobras, notably N. flava, N. nigricollis, and 

 perhaps N. melanoleuca .f I believe the venom ejected is 

 shaken off the fangs, and carried forward by the vehemence 

 of the thrust. In some instances, however, where a shower 

 of spray is reported it is more probably caused by the explosive 

 expiratory blasts from the glottis, which occur while the 

 snake is hissing, and to which I refer again later. 



(d) Nocturnal or Diurnal : This species is diurnal in habit. 

 I have several times witnessed one in hilly country, where I 

 could look down upon it, without being observed, and noticed 

 the stealthy way it probed into every recess or clump of 

 vegetation that might conceal a quarry consistent with its 

 gastronomic tastes. I have several times met one when 

 birds' nesting, shooting, or out after butterflies. Many of 

 these were obviously not roused from a siesta, but were 



* Vol. XIII., p. 376. 



| The spitting snake of South Africa is usually admitted to be Sepedon 

 haemachates, the " ringhals" of the Dutch. 



