A POPULAR TREATISE ON INDIAN SNAKES. 539 



one to take them off the bush with a stick." Russell * says of one 

 brought in to him " it looked fresh, and lively, and was very alert, hissed 

 and snapped at everything opposed to it." Mr. Hampton says in a 

 letter : " I consider it to be a very sluggish, harmless poisonous snake." 

 He continues : " When a match is struck in front of the case at night, 

 or a lamp is suddenly brought in front of the cage, they will strike at it. 

 They seem to he very hardy in captivity ; some presented to the Zoolo- 

 gical Society in 1886 by Mr. Bligh of the P. W. D., Burma, are still 

 alive and well, I hear from two sources." Stoliczka says, speaking of 

 specimens he had encountered near Moulmein : " All were very sluggish 

 and did not make the slightest attempt to escape when approached, and 

 even allowed themselves to be removed from the top of the plant. 

 Neither did they offer to bite unless when pressed to the ground with a 

 stick ; but when thoroughly aroused they turned round and bit furiously." 



Food. — Its diet consists of small vertebrates, but some partiality is 

 shown towards mammals. 



Gunther f observes that it feeds on small birds and frogs. Mr. IS. S. 

 Flower J mentions lizards, and Cantor says it preys on small birds and 

 tree frogs, but occasionally descends to the ground in search of frogs 

 and toads. Mr. Gerhardt writes to me he has only known them eat 

 musk rats (i.e., Crocidurce). Major Evans, A.V.D., in a letter to me 

 says he has known them eat a musk rat or shrew, a field mouse, a field 

 rat and a lizard (Calotes mystaceus). Mr. Hampton writes to me : " Rats 

 are its principal food in captivity," but he has known them eat a tree 

 sj*rew ( Tupaia), and on one occasion two moles. When hard up, he says, 

 they eat frogs, and he has known a snake (Lycodon fasciatus) to have 

 been eaten on two occasions. I have records of a musk rat bein g ingested 

 once, also a rat, and I saw a specimen in the Hongkong Museum in the 

 act of swallowing a small bird. Mr. Millard writes to me : " We find 

 them feed readily in confinement on small rats, mice, birds, and lizards." 



Breeding. — The only information I can get in this direction is from 

 Mr. Hampton, who says they produce from seven to twelve young at 

 a time. I have examined a specimen which contained 11 eggs, G in one 

 ovary and 5 in the other. They were immature, showing no trace of 

 embryos, and were closely packed so that their longest diameters lay 

 vertically."' 



* lad. Serp., Vol. 1, p. 13. t Hept., Brit. India, p. S86. 



% Proc. Zool. Soc, Lond., Pt. Ill, 1899, p. 6S6. 



