.1 POPULAR TREATJSK ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 78b 



The tenacity with which it can maintain its hold in foiiafre under 

 most disadv:intag;eous circumstances 1 have more than once been 

 witness to. I managed to hustle one on one occasion to tlie extreme 

 tips of the branches of a small neem tree, but though the slendei- 

 twiffs swayed boislerously under its weight and movements, it remain- 

 ed firmly suspended until I dislodged it with a stick. 



Any opportunities of exhibiting its natatory powers are probably rare, 

 but that these are creditable seems certain, for I once encountered one 

 ("unless it was D. pictits) on a small island in Ohilka Lake fully 2 miles 

 from the main land. 



Food. — This tree-snake appears to me to subsist under natural 

 conditions chiefly on lizards, but does not disdain other reptilian fare. 

 Mr. E. E. Green tells me that in captivity '' it feeds readily upon tmall 

 lizards (Agamido'-, Geckon'/dce^ and Scineidce)". He saw one once take 

 and eat a gecko which it swallowed immediately alive. He also 

 once encountered one eatmg a full-grown "-blood-sucker" lizard* 

 (Calotes versicolor) and tells me further that young examples are said 

 to feed on grasshoppers. Ferguson quotes Mr. Ingleby as saying that 

 it is very keen aiter frogs, and pariicularly tree frogs. Mr. C. Beadcjn 

 tells me that he once found one eating a blind snake ( Typhlops sp.) 

 which returned to its kill after having been once disturbed. On 

 occasion it will attack and plunder birds' nests. I once witnessed 

 an encounter between this snake and a pair of black- backed robins 

 ( Thamnobia fulicata) in the Borella Cemetery in Colombo. My atten- 

 tion was attracted by the distressed behaviour of the birds, which 1 

 approached cautiously, and saw on the ground- between a group of 

 gravestones a tristis with its head well erected. 1 was so near that 1 

 both saw and heard more than one peck delivered (it appeared to me 

 on the head) by the birds in their agitated flights to and fro. An 

 incautious movement on my part, and the snake had slipped away, 

 and no amount of search could reveal its whereabouts. In a croton 

 bush within a yard or two of the encounter I found the robin's nest 

 with eggs, t^pecimens in the Madras Museumf have fed freely. One 

 ate 7i> toads and 1 lizard between the 12th August and 31st March ; 

 another \!A frogs from the 1st April to the 21st January following : a 

 third 18 frogs between the 13th February and 31st of March ; and a 

 fourth 104 frogs, presumably during the year. 



* Spol ZeyLuuca. April 1906, p. 220. t Adminieiration Report, xMadrae Govt. Mus., 1896-97. 

 2 



