438 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



with age, anteriorly. The belly is pearly -white. The head 

 is black above, merging to white on the upper lips. The 

 young have the white arches particularly well deJBned and 

 conspicuous, even anteriorly. They also have a partial or 

 complete white collar, the back part of the head white, and 

 two white vertical streaks in front of and behind the eye. 

 Occasionally in adults the Ijlack has a mercurial lustre or 

 the colour of a dark dun horse. 



Habits. — (a) Haunts : Fayrer says : "It is found in the 

 fields, grassy plains, rice khets, low scrubby jungle, and among 

 debris of wood and buildings. It sometimes insinuates itself 

 into houses, in the verandah, bathrooms, on the ledges of 

 doors or jhilmils, into book cases, cupboards, &c." Millard 

 writes to me : " It is very fond of living in the roofs of bun- 

 galows." 



Theobald, speaking of kraits as a group, says ; " They 

 delight in water and its vicinity," an observation which 

 receives support among others from Father Castets, S.J., 

 who ^-sTites to me that in Trichinopoly " small specimens have 

 been brought to me in bundles of twenty or more caught, as 

 they said, in water." I have had several specimens brought 

 to me that were captured in water. These were, I think, 

 always captured in the hot weather, which seems to show that 

 they grow very thirsty, and for this reason they frequently 

 get into places from which they cannot extricate themselves, 

 such as wells and the little pukka tanks connected with the 

 irrigation arrangements so commonly seen in Indian gardens. 



They appear to me to be commonest in the precincts of 

 man, and to actually domicile themselves in human habita- 

 tions for choice. Thus, the krait may usually be reckoned 

 as one of the commonest snakes to be found about canton- 

 ments and even in the bazaars, and its numerical strength is 

 probably little dreamt of by Indian residents. In Fyzabad, 

 for instance, I obtained 47 specimens in June, July, and 

 August, 1906, all caught or killed in cantonments. Judging 

 from the \veekly bags brought in by a snake-catcher at 

 Delhi, it was probably as common in that station. A very 

 large number of my specimens were encountered inside 

 bungalows, outhouses, bazaars, and about jails. As a rule, 



