266 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



of the python and the floor of the cage. Severo pressure must 

 have heen brought to baar, as the rat — a full-sized one— was dead 

 in 3 or 4 minutes." 



Here I may draw attention to the frontispiece of Lyddeker's Royal 

 Natural History, Volume V., which shows this snake entwined in a 

 most unnatural manner round a perpendicular bamboo stem, a large 

 part of its body free, and holding a large rat with a serenity and 

 facility very unreal. I doubt whether this acrobatic performance is 

 possible for more than a few seconds apart from the manner in which 

 it is shown bolting its meal. It is regrettable that the ii accuracies 

 of a skilled artist should pass the censorship ot so great a naturalist. 

 The quarry once captured is swallowed at once, so that in ihe case of 

 inoffensive creatures, such as frogs, it is no unusual circumstance for 

 them to reach the stomach sufficiently alive for their suppressed cries 

 to be distinctly audible; and moreover remarkable as it may seem, when 

 r3scued from their engulfment it is a fairly common event for them, 

 after the lapse of some minutes, to recover sufficiently to hop away. 

 I have witnessed this on several occasions, and Kelsall has recorded 

 such an experience in this Journal. 



Hats, though sometimes preyed upon, are not nearly so staple an 

 article of diet as suggested by its name. Mr. Hampton tells me that in 

 captivity in Regent's Park, London, he was familiar with this snake and 

 saw it seizing, and devouring good-sized rats with avidity, but that his 

 specimens in Burmah, far from liking rats, seem to be afraid of them, 

 preferring an exclusively batrachian fare. Lizards, birds and other small 

 vertebrates form a welcome supplement to its voracity. Recently, in 

 Fyzabad, a three-footer was found in a shrub attacking a nest of young 

 birds. It had already swallowed a gecko (Hemida< tylus gleadovii), and 

 was in the act of devouring one fledgling. That it must be considered 

 both gourmand and gourmet may be inferred from the following bills 

 of fare. A specimen brought to me in Cannanore had eaten a large 

 frog (liana tigrina), a large toad [Bufo melanotiictus), and a half- 

 grown lizard (Calotes versicolor) ; another lately acquired in Fyzabad 

 with a very tight -fitting waistcoat wt.s found to contain a large toad 

 (Bnfo andersoni), a lizard of the skink family (Mahnia dissimilis), 

 and a young tortoise (Trinnyx), and as though dissatisfied with 

 this o-course luncheon, had endeavoured to include a large lizard ? 

 probably of the genus Calotes, since some 5 inches or more of its 



