A Dangerous Snake.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 469, 7 May 1890, Page 4

A Dangerous Snake.

Mr G. W. Vidal, C.S., at the recent meeting of the Bombay Natural History Society, brought statistics to notice showing that the death rate in Rutnagherry district alone from the bite of a small snake called the echis earinata, averaged 6-18 a-day during the years 1882-87. This is the second time that this insignificant-looking snake has attracted official notice by its destruction of human life, for some years ago attention was called to the heavy mortality it caused in Sind. The echis earinata, called ‘ foorsa ’ by the natives in some parts, is a viper, and owes its dangerous character to the sluggishness which characterises all vipers. Thus, where the far stronger and fiercer cobra would get out of a man’s way, this little snake lies still and waits to be trodden on, when it turns upon its destroyer and inflicts a deadly bite. It is rarely more than a foot long, and is of a dark brown colour, with brown spots conspicuously sprinkled on the under side, which is of a yellowish-white colour. These spots are a mark by which persons may at once distinguish the ‘ foorsa ’ who are unable to recognise it by its viperina marks. The snake is exceedingly common in several parts of India. On the black cotton soil of Berar, for instance, during the rains, one or two may be found with certainty during a mornings walk through the ploughed and weeded fields. They lie coiled up on the ground, where they are apt to be passed over for stones, or else on the branches of babool bushes. They climb into huts and the verandahs of houses as readily as into trees.