424 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



According to Blanford it had not been recorded East of Bengal up to 

 1895. 



This locality is far out of its range, and the species is not migratory, but I 

 believe I identified the bird correctly, and, after Butastui- teesa turning up in 

 Australia lately, I venture to send the note for what it is worth, the bird 

 being no longer available for examination. 



A. L. BUTLEK, F.Z.S. 



Selangor, Oct., 1898, 



No. XIV.— NOTE ON THE WHITE SNAKE (COLUBER TyENIURUS), 



COPE. 

 Boulenger, " Reptilia " in "Fauna of India," p. 333, 

 Ridley, "Jour. Straits Branch, R. A. S.," No. 31, p. 99. 



I have just seen, in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Asiatic 

 Society, a very interesting account of this snake, coinciding with and anti- 

 cipating some observations on the species which I was going to send in for 

 our Journal. However, Mr. Ridley has given a much better account than 

 I should have done, so I will content myself with a very brief note. 

 Coluber taeniurus has a very wide range (" Mantchuria, China, Darjeeling, 

 Cochin China, Siam, Borneo, and Sumatra" — Boulenger), but has only 

 been comparatively lately recorded from the Malay Peninsula. Nowhere 

 can I find any information as to its habits and haunts in the other local- 

 ities from which it has been recorded, and in this Mr. Ridley seems to 

 have been equally unsuccessful. Mr. Boulenger, hampered by limited 

 space, is silent on the subject, only giving the description and distribution. 



Here the White Snake occurs only in the limestone caves at Batu, and 

 in similar caves in Perak, living in the dark and damp passages often 

 hundreds of yards from the light of day, and feeding on the bats which 

 inhabit the caverns. It appears to live on good terms with the large 

 toads {Bufo asper) which are numerous in the same gloomy tunnels. 



When seen by torchlight upon the black deposit of guano which carpets 

 the caves, this snake is a distinctly weird and ghostly-looking creature, 

 appearing pure white by the contrast, and being very conspicuous ; at rest 

 on a ledge of limestone, however, as Mr, Ridley has pointed out, its pale 

 ochreous and grey colouring harmonises perfectly with its surroundings, 

 and it is extremely difficult to detect. Mr. Ridley shows, too, that our 

 Batu cave snakes are much paler in colour than the species usually is 

 as described by Mr. Boulenger. Is it entirely a cave-dweller in other parts 

 of its wide range ? Can any member of the Society give any information 

 on this point ? Should this not prove to be the case, then our pale- 

 coloured local variety must be a specialized form, admirably adapted to 

 assimilate wuth its subterranean surroundings. 



Boulenger says it grows to 5i feet; Mr. Ridley mentions one 6 feet 

 7 inches long, and I recently captured a specimen? feet 5^ inches in length. 



