610 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



round, and the terminal spine fixed to the ground two or three inches forward. 

 From this purchase the snake pushed the posterior body forwards till the snake 

 was completely extended in its whole length when the caudal extremity was again 

 flicked forwards and the spine again fixed. Placed in my bath I was surprised 

 to see with what activity it was able to swim, its powers in this direction seem- 

 ing as good as that of other snakes. In loose dry earth it pushed its head 

 through the surface layers with great ease, often burrowing so superficially that 

 much of its body was visible, but in damp or wet earth it plunged at once to 

 some depth, and when sought for resisted traction efforts with considerable 

 strength. Two $ 9 were gravid, one on the 30th April, and one some time 

 between the 1st March and 9th May. In one case there were 5 and in the 

 other 6 eggs. One gravid specimen measured 11^ inches. In the stomach and 

 intestines of many I found numerous white oval bodies which I submitted to 

 Dr. Annandale for favour of identification. These proved to be larvae and pupa; 

 of ants, and in many specimens too I found the cases of ant imagoes sometimes 

 entire. Ants appear therefore to furnish the staple food of this snake. In one 

 specimen both the parietals were confluent. The tongue in life has white tips. 



BoiD.E. 

 Python molurus (^Linne). 

 This species is common in Assam. I had 4 specimens brought to me, all 

 quite young, and I saw several large skins in Planters' bungalows. In my speci- 

 mens the ventrals and subcaudals were as follows : — 260-f G8, 263+68 and 

 256+68. In one the 54th, 55th, 58th to 62nd, and 65th and 66th subcaudals 

 were entire. The anal was entire in all. At a point two heads lengths after 

 the head the costals in three were respectively 54, 56 and 56 rows, at midbody 

 69, 63 and 70, and two heads-lengths before the anus 44, 44 and 43. I notice 

 that the last 4 costal rows progressively increase in size the last being just one- 

 half the breadth of the ventrals. Several Planters and others gave me informa- 

 tion about the specimens they had encountered. Dr. Elmes shot one 19 feet long 

 which he saw lying on a little knoll in a jheel (^ " bhil " is the local name for 

 these sheets of water). It had swallowed two large and two small water rats, and 

 two or three toads. His servants last year killed a specimen in his fowl house 

 about 12 to 14 feet long. It presented a beaded appearance, and when opened 

 was found to contain 5 of his ducks, 4 fowls and 1 pigeon. A neighbour of 

 Dr. Elmes killed one last year which contained a barking deer. He personally 

 saw the deer cut out and judged the horns to be fully a foot long. These, he 

 says, were softened and rounded off at the tips as a result of digestive activity. 

 Mr. Staunton had one brought in to him that had swallowed three farmyard 

 ducks. Mr. Copeland had a 15 footer killed on his estate last year, which had 

 eaten a hog deer. The snake when surrounded, and hustled by his coolies, tried to 

 make off, but in so doing the horns of the deer, some 7 or 8 inches in length, 

 penetrated the flanks, and protruded through the ribs. Mr. Harry has a large 

 skin preserved. When killed, the snake was found to contain a barking deer 

 the horns of which were four to six inches in length, Mr. J. H. Mitchell wrote 



