536 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVIII. 



occurred from all mucous surfaces and lasted in one case for 

 a week. 



In a case under the care of Major Browning, I.M.S., reported by 

 Elliot*' a woman of 25 was bitten in the finger by a 10-inch 

 specimen at 2-15 p.m. At 8 p.m. she had a sharp haemorrhage 

 from the bitten part which recurred at 1 a. m. In almost all these 

 cases no constitutional symptoms other than those attributable to the 

 blood were observed. In one case reported by Major Irvine the 

 man almost died on two occasions of fright alone, but eventually 

 recovered. In a case reported by Russellt the man is said to have 

 had delirium and spasms, and in Browning's case there was frontal 

 headache. In most cases severe burning pain, and varying degrees 

 of swelling, sometimes very pronounced, occurred locally. 



Food. — For information on this subject I am much indebted to 

 Mr. Millard, who has had ample opportunities of ascertaining the 

 character of food preferred by the many specimens kept in captivity 

 in the Society's rooms in Bombay. He tells me they feed readily on 

 mice, centipedes, and scorpions. He has also known them eat frogs, 

 and on one occasion a locust. He also mentions an instance, in this 

 Journal!, of one Echis eating another which it subsequently disgorged. 



Mr. Thurston writes to me that in the Madras Museum two speci- 

 mens between the 29th October 1896 and 31st March 1897 ate 8 frogs. 



Miss Hopley§ mentions seeing this snake in captivity in London 

 kill and eat a mouse on two occasions, and remarks that on both occa- 

 sions it waited till its victim was dead before swallowing it. 



Gunther % says he never found anything but scolopendree (centi- 

 pedes) in the stomach of this species. 



Foes. — Though such a truculent little reptile it is sometimes over- 

 powered by creatures one would expect it to vanquish, or at least 

 to hold its own with. Mr. Boulenger in this Journal || says on the 

 authority of Mr. Mountford that the Sind Krait (Bungarvs sindanvs) 

 is reported to frequently eat the Echis. Jerdon** records a sand 

 snake (Fsammophis condanarns) having eaten one, and Elliot 

 reports a case where the common house rat killed three Echis 



* Loc. cit., p. 40. § Snakes, pp. 579 and 580. 



f Ind. Serp., 1896, Vol. I, Part II, p. 78. f Rept. Brit. Ind., 1864, p. 397. 



X Vol. XVI, p. 757. || Vol. XI, p. 74. 



** Jourl. Asiat. Soc, Bengal, Vol. XXII, p. 529. 



