A POPULAR TREATISE ON INDIAN SNAKES. 547 



captivity eat a frog, but in its native haunts my observations show 

 that lizards of the genus Calotes are preferred to any other creature. 

 Mr. Primrosa* mentions a case of cannibalism practised by this snake, 

 the victim being Tropidonotus stolatus. On investigating the dung of 

 specimens I have frequently found it contain the scales of what were 

 probably lizards, since no vestige of ventral shields were found such as 

 would result from snakes being ingested. There have been frequently 

 fragments of the cases of insects, such as cockroaches, and once I re- 

 covered a large black ant almost intact. After one in captivity had eaten 

 a Calotes versicolor I isolated it, and examined the resultant excrement. 

 From this I extracted, by softening the mass in water, the scales of 

 the lizard which floated up, and also fragments of insects. In this case 

 I think, I am justified in supposing the insect remains to have emanated 

 from the alimentary system of the lizard, as I never saw insects in the 

 vivarium. Giintherf and BoulengerJ mention insects as the food of 

 young Dryophis prasinus, a very closely allied member of the 

 genus, and I wonder whether these observations were the result 

 of direct experiment, or if conjectured from the examination of the 

 dejecta. 



Green § remarks : " Its manner of capturing its prey is invariable. 

 When a lizard is introduced into the cage, the snake slowly frees the 

 fore part of its body and coils itself in a zigzag fashion. Then suddenly 

 darting forward, it seizes the victim unerringly just behind the head 

 drags it from its support, and keeps it dangling without shifting its 

 hold, but gradually tightening its grip, until the lizard is suffocated. 

 * * * The snake never commences to swallow its prey until 

 all signs of life have ceased." The Revd. F. Bertram, S.J., || says : 

 " It does not even always wait for its prey to be paralysed before 

 eating it." And I agree with this remark, though it certainly does 

 hold on to its victim till its struggles are of little avail. In this respect 

 it differs from the dhaman and cobra, which commence to swallow 

 as soon as their prey is seized. When the victim has passed through the 

 jaws, the snakes rears itself vertically for nearly or quite half its body 

 length, and then practises a series of contortions during which the 



* Bom. N. H. Journ., Vol XV., p. 347. 



t Rfpt. Brit. Ind., p. 303. 



I Faun. Brit, J nd. Kept. & Batrach., p. 399. 



§ Spolia Zeylanica, Vol. I, Pt. II, Jnne 1903, p. 1. 



B Snakes aud their Venom, Trichinopoly, 1897, p. 11. 



