176 
SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
I have certainly never seen the fascination of birds. I once tied a 
cobra for three hours near some birds, but whether they knew the snake 
could do them no harm or not, they appeared to be totally unaffected. 
On the other hand, I once saw a frog stand perfectly still until its 
capture by a common olive green snake (with yellow band); but 
I could not make out whether it had seen the snake (I understand 
the eyesight of frogs is by no means acute), or whether, as the latter 
approached, the frog was really hypnotized. 
I had often been told that wherever there were wild pigs snakes 
disappeared, the inference being that the latter were eaten by the 
pigs. But only on one occasion have I seen a fight between the two. 
It was in 1894, early in the morning, when I was going up the slope of 
Panyagulakanda, near Labugama, in order to take trigonometrical 
observations. I had proceeded along the bed of a dry stream some 
200 ft. above the valley when I became aware of a commotion in the 
jungle on a small ledge some 40 ft. away from where I was. So far 
as I could make out some animal was jumping in the most curious 
way while remaining in the same spot. I thought at first that it 
had been caught in a trap, and I crept cautiously towards it, and as I 
approached I found the animal was a pig, and that a fight was going 
on between it and a snake. I went closer still until I was about 12 ft. 
from the scene of the struggle, which I watched with the greatest 
interest. A fine cobra about 5 ft. long was endeavouring to strike 
at the pig, which kept jumping about from side to side to avoid its 
blows. Within the first five minutes the pig appeared to have been 
struck twice near its shoulder, but of that I could not make sure, as 
the movements of both were very quick. Suddenly the pig changed 
its tactics ; every time the cobra struck at him the pig would jump 
right over him, when the cobra would turn right round to face the 
enemy. This went on for several minutes, and I thought that the 
jumps were made in order to tire the snake out; but I soon found 
that when the pig jumped it held all its four feet bunched together. 
I now saw that it was attempting to fall with the whole of its weight 
upon the snake’s back. After I had been watching them for about 
a quarter of an hour, the snake was getting perceptibly more sluggish 
in turning, and the pig succeeded in descending upon him once; the 
cobra now attempted to escape, but the pig prevented this by jump¬ 
ing near its tail, when the snake had to face him again. A few 
minutes later the pig landed fair and square upon the middle of the 
back of the cobra, the blow evidently breaking its backbone, or at 
least paralysing him, as the upper part of its body kept close to the 
ground, while its tail was lashing the ground all round. The pig 
immediately seized the snake just behind the hood with its mouth, 
and placing its fore feet on either side, severed the neck of the snake 
in a very few seconds. It now seized the head and swallowed it 
first, and then coming back to the body cut it up into pieces about 
5 inches long, which it devoured very quickly. After despatching 
