NOTES. 107 
This viper, in spite of its villainous physiognomy, is reputed to 
be the least dangerous of any of our venomous snakes, with the 
possible exception of the tiny Callophis, about the venom of which 
little or nothing is known. There are no recorded cases of death 
or of serious illness from the bite of the Green Viper. It is possible, 
however, that the amount of venom that could be injected by such 
a large specimen as that here described might result in more serious 
consequences. 
A Passenger-carrying Beetle-—The ‘Dung Beetles”? (Coprini) 
are very generally infested by large numbers of parasitic mites, 
which can scarcely be classed as passengers. But a specimen of 
Scarabeus gangeticus recently flew into my room and—when 
 captured—was found to be carrying a number of small winged flies 
. These flies appeared to be in no way inconvenienced by the somewhat 
eomnlicated process of unfolding and furling of the wings of the 
i 7d: but 
ae flies 
eed in 
id. find 
a store 
ymmon 
sidered 
Nowing 
sionally 
reeding 
tes (the 
ooking 
utterfly 
yllowing 
oued its 
yutterfly 
‘ound to 
meet it, making repeated pounces av tne tuseeu av 1 uusesvd against 
the wire gauze. This particular butterfly, by the way, is supposed 
to mimic Papilio hector—a species that exhibits warning colours, 
and is credited with distasteful properties. It is doubtful if a 
squirrel would have much chance of capturing an uninjured butterfly 
in the open. 
Crows and their Ways.—-In the last number of Spolia I 
described the chase of a full-grown hare by a crow. I have since 
rescued a young leveret from the unwelcome attentions of a pair of 
these omnivorous birds. When I came upon the scene the baby 
hare had its back against a high bank and was pluckily fighting 
the two crows, making feints at them with its front feet whenever 
they tried to approach too close. The crows appeared to be 
distinetly afraid of a front attack. They sidled about, just out of 
