A POPULAR TREATISE ON INDIAN SNAKES. 267 



tail had been devoured. The specimen alluded to above which bit 

 Mr. Hampton subsequently disgorged six frogs. Ferguson* comments 

 upon the gluttony of this species, and says its favourite food is a 

 medium-sized frog, of which a fair-sized snake will eat about twenty- 

 two at a meal. 



Mr. Hampton says if at all hungry it will not disdain the meal 

 afforded by another snake, including even iis cwn spec : es. This I know 

 to be true, and quite a common event in captivity, which is vouched for 

 by Mr. Millard, Ferguson and others, but I think it is a rare exhibi- 

 tion of depravity in its natural state ; however, Assistant Surgeon 

 Robertson told me he once cut open a large dhtiman, and found it con- 

 tained another dhaman, 3 feet ] 1 inches in length, in its stomach. 

 Floweif mentions one eating a snake (Chrysope/ea ornata). Mr. 

 Green tells me of one which disgorged several snakes of the genus 

 Rhinophis in its death throes, and Lightfoot J has lately presented a 

 specimen to the Bombay Natural History Society preserved in the act 

 of swallowing a Psammophis condanarus. The stomach, as will be seen 

 if distended with a meal, lies more in front of the middle point of the 

 body, than in some other snakes, notably the Krait, and Uemiburiaarns, 

 where it lies wholly behind this point. 



Breeding. — It is the rule with snakes that the female exceeds the 

 male in length. Darwin, on the authority of Gunther, makes this state- 

 ment^ Whilst fully agreeing with this remark, in this species I have 

 no doubt that the converse obtains. An average taken from the largest 

 males and females my notes record shows a disparity decidedly in 

 favour of the male. Again, of specimens over 6 feet 6 inches, twelve 

 are miles and only two females. The longest female is 6 feet 7^ 

 inches. || Though usually met with singly, they are sometimes found in 

 pairs at times other than the breeding season. On January 5th, 1 900, in 

 Rangoon, a male and female were found coiled together beneath a 

 flooring. This date is one later than the normal hatching season. The 

 male was 6 feet 1£ inches and the female 5 feet 8-J inches. Again, in 

 Fyzibad a pair was found disporting themselves in a small pool of 

 water some three or four yards across. The female, b" feet 1\ inches in 



* Bombay Natural History Journal, Vol. X, \\ 4. 

 f Proc. Zool Soc. 1-91). p. <i«4. 

 X Pombay Natural History Journal, Vol. XVI, p. 530. 

 § Descent of Man, p. 538. 

 || See addenda (3). 



