46 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 
VI. The Siamese names of some Snakes. 
Having read articles on the subject of Snakes in this Journal, the 
following may be of interest to your readers. 
To the people of Mondhol Payap the Malayan Viper (Ancistrodon 
rhodostoma) is not an unfamiliar snake and is generally known as “ngu 
eae a 
tiing chang (anaais ” or “ngu tiing kaba (smansun),” the former 
name being applied to the bigger-sized ones. In Rajburi, Petchaburi, 
and Prachuab Kirikhan districts the Siamese call it ‘“ ngu kapa 
(3 nzus),” or more descriptively correct, ‘‘ngu kapa falami (3 nsuselr 
4 
azu).” Falami” is the vernacular name for the lid of the ordinary 
Siamese earthen cooking-pot, the shape of which the snake sometimes 
simulates when it has coiled itself up into a broad conical mass, with 
its head projecting out on the top. If what I am told is correct, this 
viper is known round Bandon as “ ngu pak book (aulany n).” There 
are other names beginning with “ ngu kapa” but these, it appears, are 
given to Ancistrodon rhodostoma of different sizes and shades or colours. 
So far as I have been able to observe, the species occurs as 
far north as Latitude 19° 20', and as high up as 1500 feet elevation. 
Judging from the different places the snake has been known from, 
the range of distribution of Ancistrodon rhodostoma in Siam may, 
I think, practically be said to cover the whole of the country. 
This snake is partial to dry localities, such as those with sandy 
or laterite soil. It is often to be met with on the sandy coast of 
the Peninsula. Further inland and farther north it may generally 
be looked for in places where grow “mai tiing” or “ mai pluang” 
( Dipterocarpus tuberculatus) and “mai teng” and ‘mai rang” 
(Shorea sp.), which form tree-growths generally characteristic of 
localities having laterite soil. The Payap name of the snake, “ngu 
tiing” derives its origin from “mai tiing,” in which forest it is 
generally found. 
The bite from Ancistrodon rhodostoma is said by some of the 
people to be deadly, but by the majority it is considered to have 
an effect more or less equal to that of the common Green Pit-Viper 
(Lachesis gramineus) which rarely, if ever, proves fatal to man. 
The other snakes of Chiengmai and neighbourhood that go 
by the local generic name of “ngu tiing” are the common and 
A ew A ” 
widely spread Simotes cyclurus, “‘ngu tiing hua kieng, (an ANY 
JOURN, NAT. HIST. SOC. SIAM, 
