324 
NOTES ON SNAKES IN EAST AFRICA 
exciting captures occurred one night last August, when the 
writer was sitting with a friend and a boy rushed up to the 
tent gasping 4 Nyoka Bwana,’ and was away before he could 
be interrogated. 
Seizing the lamp we followed him through the camp till, 
halting near his banda, he waited for the light by which we 
were able to see a fine cobra streaking away at full speed in 
the direction of a marquee, around which some forty boys 
were sitting on empty boxes and upturned petrol tins. They 
also caught sight of it, and a fine commotion ensued with the 
upsetting of tins and the falling over tent ropes as the alarmed 
natives endeavoured to escape. Shielding his eyes with his 
helmet the writer headed it off, and when it turned he again 
got in front of it when it stopped. The night was pitchy- 
dark, and when the snake was on the move it continually 
got beyond the rays of the solitary lamp. When a second 
light was brought the writer pinned the snake down by the 
neck, but the ground being hard it withdrew its head and spat, 
although in the darkness one could not see where the venom 
went. A second attempt was more successful, and the reptile 
was picked up by the neck. 
In the western portions of East Africa the Black-lipped 
Cobra ( Naia melanoleuca) is found, and the writer received 
a number of specimens which were ingeniously caught by 
means of a bent stick and a snare set over their holes. As the 
snake emerged from its retreat the spring was released, and 
the reptile was suspended in the air by its neck. This species 
is readily distinguished from its near relatives by the vertical 
black lines bordering the upper lip-scales. 
A fine Egyptian cobra ( Naia haie), probably eight feet long, 
was shot at Longido West. This snake ranges from Palestine 
and Arabia to Zululand and the Transvaal, but does not 
appear to be common in these parts. Like the black-necked 
species it also has the power of discharging the venom from 
its fangs to a considerable distance. 
Gunther’s Garter Snake ( Elapechis Guentheri) is a short 
viperish-looking relative of the cobras. It is beautifully 
ringed in coral-pink and black or white and black. It is quite 
common in Nairobi, where it is frequently to be found lying 
