Nature Notes

Raimanu

Reef Snakes

rjTHE Fijian I asked said that the X big snake with dark bands around his pale body was called ndandakulathi. It was curled up

in a hole in a limestone cliff, about six feet above the sand of the beach. He told me, too, that it was quite harmless.

To prove his point, the native took a stick and tried to poke the snake out of its hole. I lent a hand, too. But there was nothing doing. The reptile just crawled further out of sight, so we left him to it.

The small snakes of this variety

are not uncommon. If you go shell hunting on the reef you are likely to come across them. I remember one I met when wading out to board a canoe at Ono-i-lau. What fascinated me was the way it could move either forward or backward, apparently with equal ease.

Then my children used to find

them among the rocks on the reef, and pick them up —the little ones, of course.

They do seem to be quite harmless. As for the big ones, there’s a tale Cap tain Frewen tells of call ing once at the Solo Light, off the Astrolabe Reef, north of Kadavu. It seems that there is only rock around the lighthouse, and not much of that; so that the Indian light-keepers are changed frequently.

And no wonder; for, so the tale runs, their chief amusement is in watching these big snakes, which come up out of the sea to bask on the warm rocks.

Is it true that “coral snakes” are poisonous? On Morotai, with the RAAF, in 1945, we used to go out shell-hunting, and were told frightening talas of sudden and painful death if one got a bite from a coral snake. But I never ever heard of an authentic case. So far as this black and white type is con cerned, there is no fear of it among the natives of Fiji.

Mr. W. L. Bygrave will retire shortly after 23 years’ service with the Lands Department in Fiji—as Surveyor, and Senior Surveyor and Valuer. He has acted as Deputy Director of Lands and Conservator of Forests.