74 



3. By tlie integuments covering the head. 



4. By the integuments covering the abdominal surface of the tail. 



5. By its colour, 



6. By its size. 



" According to the natives the Hamadryas feeds chiefly upon other 

 serpents ; in one I dissected I found remains of a good-sized Mo- 

 nitor, which fact may account for its arboreal habits, as I have in 

 Bengal, along the banks of the rivers, observed numbers of those 

 large lizards among the branches of trees \vatching for birds. 



" The power of abstaining from food, generallyspeaking, so charac- 

 teristic of the serpents, is but in comparatively small degree possessed 

 by this species ; the raost protracted starvation amounts to a period 

 of about one month, while the Vipera elegans, the Naja tripudians, 

 and the Bungarus annularis, have, without inconvenience, been con- 

 fined in cages ^vithout any food for more than ten months. Two 

 specimens of the Hamadryas in my possession were regularly fed by 

 giving them a serpent, no matter whether venomous or not, every 

 fortnight. As soon as this food is brought near, the serpent be- 

 gins to hiss loudly, and expanding the hood rises two or three 

 feet, and retaining this attitude as if to take a sure aim, watching 

 the movements of the prey, darts upon it in the šame manner as the 

 Naja tripudians does. When the victim is killed by poison, and by 

 degrees swallowed, the act is followed by a lethargic statė, lasting 

 for about t\velve hours. Such of the other Indian venomous ser- 

 pents, the habits of which I have had opportunity to study from life, 

 show themselves much inclined to avoid other serjjents, however 

 ready they are to attack men or animals, -vvhen provoked or driven 

 by hunger ; and I am not aware of any other of those serpents being 

 recorded as preying upon its own kind. A short time ago, however, 

 during my sojourn at the Cape of Good Hope, I received from high 

 authority the follow"ing fact, which throws a light upon the habits 

 of the Naja of southem Africa, one of which, when being captured, 

 threw up the body of a Vipera arietans (Vip. brachyurus, Cuvier), 

 which bore marks of having been submitted to the process of di- 

 gestion. 



"The Hamadryas, likę the greater number of Indian serpents, 

 evinces a great partiality to \vater ; with the exception of the tree- 

 serpents (Leptophina, Bell), the)- all not only drink, but also moisten 

 the tongue, \vhich, as this organ is not situated immediately in the 

 cavity of the mouth, become in the serpents two different acts *. Spe- 

 cimens of this serpent in my possession changed the skin every third 

 or fourth month, a process which takes place in all the Indian ser- 



* M. Schlegel is of opiuion that serpents never drink. (Essap sur la Physiogn. 

 des Serpens, Partie Generole.) As mentioned above, I have had opportunities of 

 ascertaining that the greater nnmber of Indian serpents ai'c verj' fond of water, 

 a fact which I am aware has also been observed in the African serpents by the 

 eminent naturalist Dr. A. Smith, -nhose valuable discoveries, which he is at present 

 engaged in publisliing, will bring to light many facts, of which we are at present 

 in almost totai ignorance conceruing the habits of animals, particiilarly those of the 

 Reptiles. 



