Cuar. IX.] SNAKES. 305 
its habits and the extent of its distribution over the 
island are still left in uncertainty.! 
Of ten species of snakes that ascend trees in Ceylon 
to search for squirrels and lizards, and to rifle the nests 
of birds, one half, including the green carawala, and 
the deadly tie polonga, are believed by the natives to 
be venomous; but the truth of this is very dubious. 
I have heard of the cobra being found on the crown of 
a coco-nut palm, attracted, it was said, by the toddy 
which was flowing at the time, it being the season for 
drawing it. Surrounding Elie House, near Colombo, 
in which I resided, were a number of tall casuarinas 
and India-rubber trees, whose branches almost touched 
the lattices of the window of the room in which I usually 
sat. These were a favourite resort of the tree-snakes, 
and in the early morning the numbers which clung to 
them were sometimes quite remarkable. I had thus an 
opportunity of observing the action of these creatures, 
which seems to me one of vigilance rather than of 
effort, the tongue being in perpetual activity, as if it 
were an organ of feeling; and in those in which the 
nose is elongated, a similar mobility and restlessness, 
1 Ginn. Col. Snakes, p. 14. In 
the hope that some inquirer in 
Ceylon will be able to furnish such 
information as may fill up this 
blank in the history of the haplo- 
cercus, the following particulars 
are here appended. The largest of 
the specimens in the British 
Museum is about twenty-five inches 
in length; the body thin, and much 
elongated; the head narrow, and 
not distinct from the neck, the 
tail of moderate length. Forehead 
covered by three shields, one an- 
terior and two posterior frontals; 
no loreal shield; one small shield 
before, two behind the eye; seven 
shields along the upper lip, the eye 
being above the fourth. The scales 
are disposed in seventeen longi- 
tudinal series; they are lanceolate 
and strongly keeled. The upper 
parts are uniform blackish or 
brown, with two dorsal rows of 
small indistinct black spots; occiput 
with a whitish collar, edged with 
darker. The lower parts uniform 
yellowish. 
x 
