178 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
off the hillock and pull the stick towards me ; this only resulted 
in the fork being pulled out of the ferrule and the snake dropping 
into the long grass and down its hole, leaving me with my legs 
all a-shake. 
August 18. — Someone drew my attention this morning to 
the baboons opposite the bungalow. Though it was about 
8.30 and a fair amount of traffic was passing along the road, 
they had come out of the forest and were rooting about with 
the fowls among the native dome-shaped grass huts (natives 
being absent) within 200 yards of the bungalow. One old 
fellow seemed very busy stuffing handfuls of something into 
his mouth. I walked quietly across to him, with a galvanised 
iron shed intercepting his view of me, till I was within twenty 
feet. He then looked up, gave a bark, and appeared to canter 
away — in fact it gave very much the impression of a big mastiff 
bounding off. He only went a short way off and joined two 
others which had escaped my notice, and the three of them 
swung up into a small tree as far as the first fork, about eight 
feet from the ground and fifty yards from where I was standing. 
Numbers of others acted in a similar manner, instead of making 
off for the great forest trees as they usually do. I do not 
understand why they should be so exceptionally bold to-day. 
Returning home at dusk this evening, in a hurry to be in 
before dark, a motor-cycle overtook me, and almost simul- 
taneously a snake, which was evidently about to cross the road, 
suddenly recoiled from my front wheel and, turning, fled up 
the bank into the waste grass-land bordering the road. Pulling 
up suddenly, my rifle came over my shoulder and fouled my 
legs for an instant ; but losing no time, I pursued the snake into 
the grass, and recognised it as a large female of the brown 
house-snake (Boodon lineatus), but lest I had made a mistake 
and it should prove to be a venomous species, I planted my foot 
on its tail before proceeding to pick it up. Then I grabbed it 
by the neck, but, contrary to my expectations, it was very 
gentle, not attempting to bite though naturally attempting to 
free itself. The bungalow being less than fifty yards away, I 
carried it straight in. Having had some trouble with the boys, 
who had been very dilatory in preparing my bath of late, I 
walked out to where four of them were sitting chatting round the 
