140 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



" Feddon's Camp." A communication was read from Mr. 

 Caracciolo, V.P., expressing his regret and inability to attend 

 the meeting. — Mr. Mole read the following note : " Most of 

 the members present must have heard Mr. Devenish relate 

 how he on one occasion saw a Cribo eating a young Grouper. 

 It is probable that many snakes are habitual fish-eaters. The 

 common ringed snake of Europe is credited with being one of 

 them ; while the Viperine snake (Tropidonotns viperinus) of 

 Southern Europe, of which we have a specimen here, prefers 

 fish to anything else. It was while feeding this snake that I 

 discovered that one of our Trinidad species, called by the Creoles 

 Mangrove Mapepire — albeit harmless — is also a fish-eater and 

 from my observations on that occasion I anticipate that the 

 other IAophidce of Trinidad, viz., the Beh-belle-Chemin and 

 High Woods Coral are also piscivorous. At any rate I have brought 

 specimens here so that we may ascertain the fact for ourselves. 

 Flaps riisei of which the one in the bottle, is a very fine example, 

 caught by Colonel Man in his quarters, is also pasionately fond 

 of water and perhaps we may find out that he too is more or 

 less a fish connoisseur. Another fish-eating snake of Trinidad 

 is one we have not yet obtained— Helicops angulata— 

 of which Mr. O'Reilly had two specimens. The sea snakes 

 of the Indian Ocean are exclusively fish eaters." The following 

 snakes were then placed in a glass sided box, which covered 

 a large glass jar in which there were about 150 small fish : 

 Tropidonotus viperinus (from Spain), Liophis cobella, Liophis 

 regince, Liophis melanotics and an unidentified specimen. The 

 snakes were soon actively engaged in catching the fish which 

 they frequently brought out of the water to devour and then 

 returned to the jar for more. In a short time very few fish 

 remained while the increased size of the snakes shewed how they 

 h id benefited by their meal. The experiment was interesting in- 

 asmuch as only the Spanish snake had fed on fish previously and 

 it was demonstrated for the first time that L. cobella and L. 

 reginoz are most expert fishers. — Sir John Goldney related how, 

 when in Singapore, cobras were frequent visitors in his dining 

 room and how quickly the room was vacated until means could 

 be found to expel the unwelcome intruders. On one occasion a 

 fivourite retriever in attempting to worry a cobra was bitten 

 right in the pupil of the eye, where the poison had very little 

 effect, and the dog recovered. On another, when driving, he 

 sirprised a snake in the road and his groom threw a stone at it 

 and decapitated it. The snake was taken to the curator of the 

 museum at Singapore, who could not identify it. It was after- 

 wards sent to Calcutta, from thence it travelled to the British 

 Museum and the British Museum people wrote out to Singapore 

 and asked "but where is its head ?" a very difficult question to 



