BEAUTIFUL UGANDA 
138 
pithecus, and another species of the same genus which is known as 
the White-nosed monkey. This is a charming creature of bright 
colors—chestnut, blue-black, yellow-green, and gray, with a snow- 
white tip to its nose. I believe its specific name is rufoviridis. Bright- 
colored turacos are even more abundant in these Uganda forests, and 
there are green and red love-birds, gray parrots with scarlet tails, 
,and the usual barbets, hornbills, shrikes, fly-catchers, bee-eaters, roll¬ 
ers—all of them birds of bright plumage or strange form. 
'‘There are other forest creatures that are not harmless sources 
of gratification to the eye. Lying among the dead leaves on the 
path may be the dreaded puff-adder, with its beautiful carpet-pattern 
of pinkish-gray, black, lemon-yellow, and slaty blue, and with its 
awful head containing poison glands more rapidly fatal than those 
perhaps of any other viper. 
"Numerous pythons, from fifteen to twenty feet in length (gener¬ 
ally disinclined to attack human beings, however), are coiled on the 
branches of the trees, or hang by their tails like a pendent branch', 
swaying to and fro in the wind. Their checkered patterns of brown 
and white are rendered very beautiful sometimes by the bloom of 
iridescence which imparts rainbow colors into the scales when the 
skin is new. 
"The natives think nothing of laying hold of the wild python, 
who may perhaps have coiled himself up in some hole, and however 
much the snake hisses and protests, it seldom seems to bite. Yet 
these snakes could crush a man between their folds, and do crush 
and devour numbers of sheep and goats. They seem, however, very 
^loath to attack mankind and will allow extraordinary liberties to be 
(taken with them. The vividly painted puff-adders are as common as 
the pythons, and although their bite is absolutely deadly, they, too, 
seem too sluggish to attack unless by some blunder you tread on 
them and wait to see the consequences. 
"Therefore the snakes are far less an annoyance or an impedi¬ 
ment to the exploration of these forests than the biting ants. These 
creatures are a veritable plague in moist, hot regions where there is 
abundant vegetation. I suppose they are sometimes at home and resi¬ 
dent in their underground labyrinths, but they are a restless folk, 
