318 
NOTES ON SNAKES IN EAST AFRICA 
but it did not feed, possibly on account of its quarters being 
somewhat confined. 
A still more specialised and unviperish-looking genus is 
found in the burrowing vipers (Atractaspis) , of which there 
are no less than seven species in East Africa. Owing to their 
subterranean habits they are rarely met with, and the only 
living examples that came into the writer’s possession were 
taken near his tent at Morogoro ; one (A. rostrata) while 
digging a pit, another under a mass of earth and stones con- 
stituting the remains of a demolished building, and a third 
w*as seen by one of the natives near a log ; it wriggled down a 
termite hole about four feet from where it had been lying. 
On digging down it was found about a foot below the surface 
and squirmed convulsively like a Typhlops or worm when 
disturbed. When travelling over the ground its snout was 
held downwards in an unusual manner. 
It has been said that these snakes are probably not dangerous 
to man, as their fangs are so enormously developed that it 
seemed impossible to erect them in its small mouth. This 
one struck out viciously, but instead of opening the lower 
jaw, the fangs came down on either side and a little to the 
front of it ; a quantity of pale straw-coloured venom was 
discharged on to the forceps with which the writer was 
holding it. 
The next group of venomous snakes constitute a division 
of the family Colubridae known as the Proteroglypha, and 
contain some of the most dangerous species. Unlike the 
vipers which have movable poison fangs, the Proteroglypha 
are characterised by fixed grooved fangs set well forward in 
the upper jaws. The viperine tooth is hollow like the needle 
of a hypodermic syringe ; the colubrine tooth is grooved on 
the anterior surface. Should one of these snakes under con- 
sideration bite a man through the wrappings of a puttee or 
other garment a considerable amount of the venom will be 
absorbed by the doth, enhancing his prospects of recovery. 
The Mambas ( Bendraspis ) belong to this group and are 
notorious for the fact that their venom is more toxic than that 
of any other African snake ; moreover, the Mambas are the 
only African snakes that will attack man without provocation, 
