NOTES ON THE WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 119 



certainly, and looking really very like the known venomous Heloderina 

 of South America. Mr. Murray found the secretions of its skin really to 

 some extent poisonous. 



This is no place for going into so long a list as that of the fresh- 

 water snakes. It is, perhaps, enough to say that, although almost all 

 snakes swim well, only those to the manner born can dive well, and 

 it is easy enough to tell the difference between a true water- snake 

 and a mere passenger by water. The latter holds his head much 

 higher, and never stays still in the water, but "keeps moving." 



Some snakes, however, are amphibious, and one of these (Tropidonotus 

 quincunciatus), the spotted water-snake, is very much commoner 

 here than any of the true fresh-water snakes. They are sometimes 

 caught on hooks, when a frog or fish is the bait, and then they foul the 

 tackle, and make the angler unnecessarily nervous. None of them 

 are poisonous, and I do not think that any venomous land snake 

 is sufficiently at home in the water to take a bait below the surface. 

 This tropidonotus is the " pdn-divxir " of the Mahrattas. There are 

 several varieties of colour. Those in dark, muddy, shady waters are 

 a sort of dull tortoise-shell colour ; and some in open tanks and streams 

 might almost be described as black and gold. There is one very 

 libellous sort of snake-story which describes water snakes as climbing 

 up boat's cables to bite people on board. Now, a fresh-water snake 

 could have no motive for going aboard at all ; and if he did go aboard 

 and bite people, they need no more die of it than if he was a mouse. 

 As for the sea snakes, which are all venomous, they can hardly 

 crawl on the sand, let alone climbing up a cable. But no doubt a 

 really poisonous land snake, swimming across a river, might think 

 a boat a good place to rest in. A cobra or bungarus would easily 

 enough get up the cable, and his misdeeds, if any, would be laid upon 

 the innocent water snakes. Probably, however, most accidents 

 of this sort arise from snakes being brought on board in cargo or 

 firewood. 



Of frogs (Mendnh, Bhenki), we have many. The most conspicuous 

 is the big bull-frog (Rana tigrina), an unpopular creature. He eats 

 pretty nearly whatever creature he can catch, and vice versa ; 

 reminding one of the ancient Gaelic proverb, "This is the government 

 of the waters ; the beast that is greatest eats that which is least and 

 the beast that is least shifts for itself." 



The next and less known is Rana esculenta, the very identical 

 French frog. For want of French cooks he is wasted here upon the 



