546 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



forebody, and dilates the body so that the black and white interstitial 

 skin becomes plainly apparent. If further excited it opens the jaws 

 widely, and by a peculiar power widely separates the lower jaws, stretch- 

 ing the intervening skin very considerably, even so much as to double 

 the lateral expense of the floor of the mouth and make it shovel-shaped. 

 The tongue is in the meantime kept retracted and invisible, but the 

 opening of the windpipe is made conspicuous by the alternate dilatation 

 and contraction of its orifice. Seen under these conditions with head 

 retracted and upper body thrown into sigmoid curves, the snake pre- 

 sents a most formidable aspect. Even a small specimen will not hesitate 

 to bite viciously, and will draw blood as I have occasion to know. I 

 have been struck at most vehemently when my face has been opposed 

 to the windows of the vivarium, and the act has been repeated 

 several times by the same specimen after a lengthy term of captivity. 

 Mr. Green says when pressed it will strike out blindly, often in the 

 direction of the face of its opponent. Mr. Millard writes to me : " It is 

 when freshly caught, very fierce and bites freely." It is certainly true 

 that in captivity a very few days will serve to materially alter this pugna- 

 cious spirit in some specimens and then the snake will frequently per- 

 mit itself to be handled with impunity. Natives in India and Ceylon 

 believe that it strikes at the eyes of persons and cattle : hence the Tamil 

 and Singhalese names for it. This idea has received support from the 

 experience of Mr. Finn,* who whilst holding two specimens in his hand, 

 was bitten by one which darted at his eye. Two punctures were sub- 

 sequently observed on the upper and one on the lower lid, and in rub- 

 bing his eye he removed a tooth from the wound in the lower lid. 

 Among foliage it can move with great alacrity, but on the ground 

 its movements are tardy. At rest it is always seen lying more or 

 less extended on the branches, never coiled like members of the Dipsodo- 

 morphus. Its body is so slender and so light that by distributing its 

 trifling weight, it is capable of moving among the minutest twigs. 



Food. — Giintherf says it feeds on birds and lizards. GreenJ says 

 it feeds readily upon young lizards of the genus Calotes and Geckonidce. 

 Mr. Millard tells me geckoes, blood-sucker lizards, sparrows and mice 

 have been eaten by specimens in captivity. I have known one in 



* Reported in the Jour. As. 8oc. Ben., Vol. LXVII., 1898, pp. 66-67. 



t Kept. Brit. Ind, p. 306. 



J Spolia Zeylanica, Vol. I., Pt. II., Jane 1903, p. 2. 



