578 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI 1. 



ia venom, so down I went on my knees and gave him a dab with the end of a 

 stick by way of inviting him to come out and fight. Instead of doing so, or 

 trying to escape, he ilattened out his body from head to tail, not so much as 

 a cobra's hood, because there were organs below the vertebral column which 

 caused it to project, but still in a very striking manner. The object seemed 

 to be to get a firmer hold of the ground by extending and flattening the 

 ventral surface, and the faculty would often be useful in steep places. 



F. GLEADOW. 



Chakkata, Mai/, 1899. 



No. XII.— GECKO CANNIBALISM. 



A few days ago, on opening the stomach of a young female gecko (GecJco 

 monarchus, a species which occurs fairly commonly in the compound outside 

 our bungalow here), it was found to contain, in addition to a caterpillar and 

 some other remains which I could not identify, a smaller gecko of the same 

 species ; this, judging from its position in the stomach, had evidently been 

 eaten head foremost, and was quite entire. 



The lengths of the two individuals were : 



. ,. .J 1 C Tip of snout to cloaca, 57 mm. 

 Larger mdividual | ^^^-^ ^^,^^^^ ^^.^_ 



„ ,.,, C Tip of snout to cloaca, B2 ram. 



Smaller ditto . | ^.j^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^,^ ^-^ ^^ ^.^^ ^^ ^^^^ 



Gimthev, in his" Reptiles of British India," alludes to geckos as being 

 known to destroy " the younger and weaker members of their own species," 

 and he describes the individuals of Gecko monarchus as '• pugnacious among 

 themselves" ; but the fact that an animal will prey upon another of its own 

 species while living under completely natural conditions and with an abundant 

 supply of its normal insect food, seems worth recording. 



F. P. BEDFORD. 

 Singapore, March, 1899. 



(The above appeared in Nature.) 



No. XIII.— A BIRD KILLED BY A MANTIS. 



I send you in spirits a specimen of the Small Sunbird (Arachnechthra 

 minima) and a large Praying-Mantis 9 (probably Ilierodula Upapilla). 

 The history attached to them is as follows : — 



The sunbird happened to come hovering round a branch on which the 

 mantis was, and the mantis, whether in fright or otherwise, struck out at the 

 bird with his forelegs and scalped it, and the bird dropped dead. The 

 mantis was secured alive and both it and the bird were sent to me by Mr, 

 T.J. McCloughin in whose compound the occurrence happened and from 

 whom I obtained an account of it. This was nearly two years ago, and at 



