NOTES ON SNAKES IN EAST AFRICA 
319 
but it must by no means be assumed that they will always 
do so, for generally they attempt to escape. 
In one case, of which the writer heard recently, a European 
entered a banda and, finding it unoccupied, was turning to 
leave, when a mamba struck him in the back just above the 
kidneys. Though preventive measures were undertaken im- 
mediately he died twenty-four hours later. A native, whilst 
bringing a tea-tray on to the verandah where his master and 
a friend were sitting, trod on a mamba which was lying on 
the mat ; dropping the tray he attempted to reach his master, 
but fell and expired within the minute. My informant (who 
was the visitor) vouched for this. 
A comrade in the E.A.M.R. recounted how on one occasion 
he was cycling down a hill when a mamba darted across the 
road. He swerved to avoid it, and then pedalled for his 
life, but, overtaking him, the snake struck him on the leg ; 
after spending many weeks in Bulawayo Hospital he recovered. 
A native who has caught many snakes for the writer got 
bitten by a 5-foot mamba. The bite was given on the back 
of the left hand in the fleshy portion between the base of the 
forefinger and thumb. A week after this occurred there only 
remained an ugly sore, but Mushairi stated he had been very 
sick for several days. 
On January 31 near Morogoro station the writer captured 
a 5-foot mamba. The day before this occurred, whilst standing 
under a mango tree watching a carpenter-bee, his attention 
was suddenly attracted by a movement amongst the foliage 
of a branch about a yard from his head, and not more than 
8 feet from the ground. A snake was slipping quietly away, 
when his boy spotting it gave a yell which caused it to quicken 
its pace, climbing straight up through the dense foliage. 
Throwing up the only available thing — his net — it tumbled 
the snake down 4 feet, but before he could pick up the net it 
had made up the lost ground and was well out of reach. All 
this time he thought it was the less dangerous Boomslang. 
The only ‘ spot ’ difference between these two tree-haunting 
reptiles is the larger eye and more oblique scales of the Boom- 
slang ; as onty the body of this mamba could be seen it was 
difficult to be certain of its identity. 
