92 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
that a python, generally one of the most sluggish of 
reptiles, should climb trees except for a better reason 
than, for instance, to take the air or to enjoy the 
landscape : he may be credited with a more practical 
outlook on life. The python can strike a severe 
blow with his head and also inflict a sharp bite, 
but it is not correct that the grip of his jaws 
once fixed is not released. Kipling no doubt uses 
poetic licence when Kaa breaks marble with his 
snout, but I have seen quite a small python strike a 
fowl with such force that it staggered to die bleed- 
ing some paces away, and several minutes elapsed 
before the snake proceeded to investigate the effect. 
of its blow; it may therefore well be the case that 
the blow of a heavy python would be sufficient to 
stun a passing deer until it could be enfolded in the 
grip of the snake, and that this method of hunt- 
ing may supplement the sudden and more deadly 
attack from overhead—the more so as a python, 
when threatened, sometimes raises its head to a 
considerable height, and widely distends its jaws, 
as if prepared to strike as soon as opportunity 
offers. 
Cobras are frequent in the forest, but are mostly 
inoffensive unless inadvertently intruded upon. 
There were two in my hut at Chila for many days, 
and they could be heard rustling in the thatch 
morning and evening as they returned from the 
hunt or left for water and food; yet I should not 
have seen either had I not one morning met the 
male snake in the doorway, he being somewhat later, 
and I earlier, than usual. Fortunately, he it was who 
paid the penalty of his want of punctuality, and his 
