272 SNAKES OF CEYLON 



object of its alarm for a favourable opportunity to deliver its 

 thrust, the little creature reminds one of the behaviour of a 

 wrestler seeking with the utmost vigilance to engage his 

 adversary advantageously. The stroke is delivered with 

 great malice, the jaws opening widely in the act of striking, 

 and the forward thrust is no sooner accomplished than the 

 creature retracts itself to reassume its former attitude, and 

 strikes again and again, in fact, will sometimes do so till its 

 energies are spent. During the thrust the loops are straight- 

 ened to their utmost, and a two-foot snake may dart at and 

 strike an object six inches or even more in front of it. 



I have several times tried to get this and others of this 

 genus photographed in the peculiar attitude just referred to. 

 The last occasion was in Fyzabad, but in my attempts to get 

 the right pose, I was struck at again and again, until the 

 specimen lay over on its side completely exhausted, and I 

 picked it up with no more fight in it, and restored it to its box. 

 The next day it repeated the same performance with a similar 

 climax. Such determination and courage in so small a 

 creature are worthy of the greatest admiration. 



Its attitude before striking is very similar to that 

 displayed by the pit vipers, Trimeresurvs gramineus and 

 T. anamallensis. 



(d) Nocturnal or Diurnal : It is nocturnal in habit, and 

 nearly all my specimens encountered on the move have been 

 killed at night. 



Food. — Like other ophidians the gamma snake takes almost 

 anything it can get, but it shows a strong partiality in its natural 

 haxmts for lizards, especially those of the genus Calotes and 

 other agamoid forms. Gunther says it feeds on mice, but 

 I have known it do so on only one occasion. In captivity, 

 Mr. Millard tells me, it feeds freely on small birds, lizards, 

 and mammals, killing them by constriction in the same manner 

 as the python. It would appear to be capable of utihzing 

 its tail to some purpose in the same direction, for Russell 

 relates the following experience : " In the month of December 

 a vigorous subject of this species was made to bite a chicken, 

 which he did very fiercely and repeatedly in different parts. 



