826 
NOTES ON SNAKES IN EAST AFRICA 
tyjous) occurs here in even a greater variety of colouration than 
it does in the south. At Handeni a fine green female was 
killed by natives when clearing the ground for camping. At 
Morogoro the writer has obtained the vivid green variety, 
the black variety, and the brown variety. In the Yala river 
district alone, not only did the all-green and all-black varieties 
occur, but the intermediate ones in which each green scale 
had a small black speck giving the appearance of a black- 
spotted green snake, and a fifth variety in which the black 
speck is so enlarged as to almost oust the green from the scale, 
which gives the appearance of a green-speckled black snake. 
The following extract from the writer’s diary will show how 
easy it is to confuse snakes when guided by colour alone : 
‘ “ Has the snake-catcher any time to spare ? ” inquired a 
Canadian motor-driver putting his head in at my banda. 
“ Ready if it’s not too far,” I replied, preparing to follow him. 
His ambulance was stopped some sixty feet from my quarters. 
u As I pulled up,” said he, “ the beggar came down the tree, 
it appeared to form a circle and slid down like a ring in a 
moment. On reaching the ground it made straight for the car 
and there it is.” So speaking, he pointed to one of the front 
wheels, around which lay twisted a bright enamel-green snake 
with its head resting on the tyre under the mud-guard. 
‘ “ Oh,” said I, confidently, “ less than a month ago I took a 
snake of the same species from the back of a car which was 
standing not thirty feet from where yours is now.” Now, 
having only seen a brown boomslang during the whole time 
I had been in Morogoro I was unprepared for it, and mistook 
this specimen for the harmless Spotted Wood Snake, which 
is so common in the trees forming the avenue. Approaching 
the snake I made a diversion with the fingers of my right 
hand whilst slowly approaching those of the left to the snake’s 
neck. It remained motionless till my fingers were within six 
inches of it, when, slipping from the wheel, it would have 
made off had I not hastily grabbed it by the tail and swung it 
round till its body was round my hand, and pressed my thumb 
on the back of its neck just as its head reached my hand. 
1 Not till then did I notice the oblique nature of its scales, 
which immediately showed it was not the harmless species 
