hin a very recent period an important addition has been made
to this genus, by the discovery of five new species in Ceylon; in some
of which the singular construction of the tail is developed to an extent
much more marked than in any previously existing specimen. One of these,
the _Uropeltis grandis_ of Kelaart, is distinguished by its dark brown
colour, shot with a bluish metallic lustre, closely approaching the
ordinary shade of the cobra; and the tail is abruptly and flatly
compressed as though it had been severed by a knife. The form of this
singular reptile will be best understood by a reference to the
accompanying figure; and there can be, I think, little doubt that to its
strange and anomalous structure is to be traced the fable of the
transformation of the cobra de capello. The colour alone would seem to
identify the two reptiles, but the head and mouth are no longer those of
a serpent, and the disappearance of the tail might readily suggest the
mutilation which the tradition asserts.

[Illustration: UROPELTIS GRANDIS]

The Singhalese Buddhists, in their religious abstinence from inflicting
death on any creature, are accustomed, after securing a venomous snake,
to enclose it in a basket of woven palm leaves, and to set it afloat on
a river. During my residence in Ceylon, I never heard of the death of a
European which was caused by the bite of a snake; and in the returns of
coroners' inquests which were made officially to my department, such
accidents to the natives appear chiefly to have happened at night, when
the animal having been surprised or trodden on, had inflicted the wound
in self-defence.[1] For these reasons the Singhalese, when obliged to
leave their houses in the dark, carry a stick with a loose ring, the
noise[2] of which as they strike it on the ground is sufficient to warn
the snakes to leave their path.

[Footnote 1: In a return of 112 coroners' inquests, in cases of death
from wild animals, held in Ceylon in five years, from 1851 to 1855
inclusive, 68 are ascribed to the bites of serpents; and in almost every
instance the assault is set down as having taken place _at night_. The
majority of the sufferers were children and women.]

[Footnote 2: PLINY notices that the serpent has the sense of hearing
more acute than that of sight; and that it is more frequently put in
motion by the sound of footsteps than by the appearance of the intruder,
"excitatur pede saepius."--Lib. viii. c. 36.]

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