SNAKES OF CEYLON. 461 



jails, the godowns of the Supply and Transport Corps, and 

 the Telegraph Departments, from warehouses, and various 

 mills, and such like situations. No amount of bustle or 

 disturbance seems to deter it from taking up its ahode in man's 

 immediate vicinity. It was sent in to me several times in 

 Rangoon from timber yards, where hundreds of men were 

 working daily, elephants pounding up and down moving 

 timber, engines vibrating and throbbing, and circular saws 

 screeching through boles of teak. Even in such scenes of 

 turmoil it will establish itself beneath a stack of wood, or 

 convenient drain, and escape dislodgment for long periods. 



Old masonry invariably harbours cobras among other 

 snakes. In Delhi the old walls of the Fort were always a 

 safe draw for the snakeman, whom 1 saw every week bring 

 in his bag — some half dozen or more — to be robbed of their 

 poison, which was being collected for the Government of 

 India. Similarly, old cemeteries and ruined habitations, 

 mosques, &c., furnish ideal quarters for this snake. Another 

 favourite haunt is the loose brickwork of old weUs. The 

 basements of many houses in cantonments and bazaars can 

 boast a cobra tenant, and it is not surprising therefore that 

 this snake is so frequently encountered inside bathrooms, 

 and dwelling rooms, besides stables and servant's habitations. 

 Further afield an ant's nest is often a specially favoured 

 resort, or it may be any hole in the ground, or at the basement 

 of a tree among its roots. It is frequently found laear water, 

 and often actually in that element, in which it swims with 

 facility and strength. 



A few cases of cobras climbing trees are reported, the object 

 usually being the plunder of some birds' nest. 



It has been occasionally reported in the sea, perhaps carried 

 thence by rivers in flood time, but sometimes, no river being 

 in the vicinity, it must have taken to the sea of its own free 

 will. In one instance, a 4-footer is said to have managed to 

 board a man-of-war, viz., the "Wellington," lying off the coast 

 of Ceylon at Aripo. Another account of the incident, however, 

 says that the sailors saw the snake in the sea swimming 

 vigorously towards the ship, and assailed it so successfully 

 with billets of wood and other missiles that it returned to land. 



