SNAKES OF CEYLON. 507 



never, however, relaxing a vigil which has for its reward the 

 capture of the incautious animal that strays within reach. In 

 the evening it bestirs itself and roams abroad while darkness 

 prevails. 



Fayrer remarks on the authority of his snakeman that it 

 will take to water, and Haly mentions one swimming in the 

 middle of a backwater. These are exceptional instances. 

 Tennent says that it will climb trees, and I can confirm this 

 as a rare event. Its ungainly proportions, however, do not 

 favour scansorial achievements. It is no uncommon event to 

 find it in close proximity to and even in habitations, and its 

 partiality to a murine diet sufficiently explains such intrusions. 

 I remember one captured in Rangoon beneath the steps of the 

 Cantonment Magistrate's Court during the day where crowds 

 of natives had assembled. Bassett-Smith mentions it as 

 frequently coming into the precincts and into the Naval 

 Hospital at Trincomalee, and Tennent says the Judge's house 

 at this same station became so infested with this species that 

 the family had to quit. 



(b) Disposition: No observer can speak with greater 

 authority than Fayrer, and he says of the Daboia : " In 

 confinement it is sluggish, and does not readily strike, unless 

 roused and irritated, when it bites with great force and 

 determination. When disturbed it hisses fiercely, and when 

 it strikes does so with much vigour." This is entirely my own 

 experience. It is a creature slow to wrath, contenting itself, 

 under moderate provocation, with a loud sustained and 

 warning hiss, reminding one of a leaking football bladder. 



A good example of its disinclination to bite is related by 

 Blanford : a friend of his once carrying one home, under the 

 belief that it Was a python, until undeceived by its biting and 

 killing one of his dogs. It made no attempt to bite or injure 

 him, though apparently he did not take any precautions in his 

 manner of handling it. Again, Fayrer says he always during 

 his experiments had the greatest difficulty to get this snake 

 to bite voluntarily. I can fully confirm this, frequently 

 rats put into its cage remain there alive and unmolested for 

 days. In making these remarks, however, I think one must 

 expect many exceptions to this attitude of indifference. 



70 6(6)20 



