44 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



treatment soon killed it. This small quadruped then pro- 

 ceeded to eat the snake as if it was a carrot, crunching it up 

 bit by bit and ending with the tail which, sticking straight 

 out of the mungoose's mouth, slowly and gradually disappeared. 

 Not a particle of the snake was left, and the mungoose meta- 

 phorically, if not actually, smacked its Hps. 



I noticed that when the snake was not coiled, the mungoose 

 thrust its nose right up to the snake's mouth as if it were a 

 member of the Ceylon Natural History Society and was very 

 much interested in studying the conformation of its fangs. 

 But as soon as the snake was coiled it took care to keep out 

 of reach. 



[From my description of the snake, Mr. William Ferguson, 

 of the Irrigation Department, told me two or three days later 

 at Vavuniya that it was probably a pit viper, " Echis carinata," 

 which is very poisonous, if not deadly.] 



Marie hchukaddi , 



November 27, 1904. J. P. LEWIS. 



3. A Lunar Rainbow at Sea, <&;c. — This evening there was 

 a very beautiful lunar rainbow. Its span was about 60° and 

 the greatest height of the arch about 12° above the horizon. 

 The moon at the time was shining clearly in a patch of cloud- 

 less sky surrounded by rain clouds. It bore E. by N. and the 

 rainbow W. by S. The western sky was full of rain showers 

 and there was a slight rain falling at the time. Three colours 

 were plainly visible in the bow : (1) on top a red-yellow, red 

 being most prominent, (2) middle, orange -yellow, (3) bottom, 

 a pale blue. The whole space below the bow and enclosed by 

 it appeared to be slightly illuminated and the sky above was 

 black. The bow remained plainly visible from 6.20 to 6.35, 

 when it disappeared amid flashes of lightning. It was the 

 best lunar rainbow I have seen. 



From the reports of the lightkeepers at both the Great and 

 Little Basses it appears that, generally speaking, the rain 

 which has been falling in Ceylon so abundantly during the 

 last weeks has seldom reached the hghthouses. They see it 



