THE HABITS OF MALAY REPTILES. 195 
- eating snakes chiefly work by day. Most snakes are colored 
for concealment, and inhabit spots suited for their coloring. 
The green viper (Lachesis Wagleri) sits usually about 4 or 5 feet 
-high in a bush, in a sunny spot, where its blue-black, green and 
yellow mottling is matched by the spots of light and shade on 
the bright green leaves. The python, again, with its light and 
dark brown carpet pattern, resting among dead leaves, or in 
the hollow of a tree, is equally inconspicuous ; even poisonous 
snakes, which sometimes are very gay with warning colors, are 
by po means as conspicuous as they appear. ‘The beautiful 
Elaps bivirgatus, with its scarlet head and tail and deep blue 
body, is wonlerfully invisible in the shadows of the woods, but 
when in danger it exhibits its brilliant coloring as plainly as it 
can, in order to warn the ehemy that it is venomous, and can 
give a fatal bite if it chooses. Cal/ophis is another genus of poi- 
sonous snakes that is brightly colored. In danger, however, it 
does not trust to its warning colors only, but beats its tail quick- 
ly on the dead leaves, making a rattling sound. A terrier which 
came upon one of these small snakes, and was about to kill it, 
stopped at once when the snake began to rattle its tail, 
and went away, evidently understanding the signal. Bungarus 
again, a large and dangerous black and yellow snake, makes 
the same kind of rattling. A poisonous snake will not as a rule 
waste its poison on an animal it cannot swallow, and naturally 
prefers to drive its enemy off by frightening it, if it can. 
Snakes, like many of our wild animals here, know very 
well the conspicuity of motion, and when crossing an open space 
such as a road, where they are visible from some distance, 
usually remain perfectly motionless if an enemy comes in sight 
and they have no time to get into shelter. This is why they are 
more often seen cn roads by persons driving or walking than 
elsewhere. Being alarmed when crossing from wood to wood, 
they remain motionless for some time, in the hope that they 
may be taken for a root or piece of stick. I have seen a ter- 
rier, who invariably pursues snakes when she sees them, jump 
over one lying on the path, mistaking it for a stick. Had it 
moved, she would have immediately killed it. 
There are no less than one hundred and ten kinds of snakes 
recorded as occurring in the peninsula, and more than half of 
