10 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol.XVIll. 



this score is to be found in snake literature than that quoted by Elliot*. 

 He says : " I myself saw a large powerful daboia (3 feet 8 in. long) 

 "strike fairly at a dog, hold it, shake it, and only let go when the dog 

 " had fled yelping several yards, dragging the snake along the ground. 

 " The part bitten was soft, and fleshy, the bite was apparently a fair 

 '' one, the glands of the snake when dissected, though emptier than 

 " usual, both proved to contain poison. From one gland alone I 

 " obtained more poison than another daboia emitted through a 

 " leaf in a vigorous bite. Add to all this that there was a well marked 

 " subcutaneous extravasation round the bite, and the case seems perfect, 



" though it became rather ill, did not die." "Eight 



" days later the same animal was fairly struck by a vicious daboia 

 " (3 feet 4 in. long), the bite being almost instantaneous in its short- 

 '•' ness, and this time the victim died in less than three hours." 



Halyf mentions a bite from this snake, from which the man suffered 

 no ill effects. 



In a recent number of this Journal J Colonel Bannerman expresses 

 the belief that the young daboia is not provided with poison in its 

 earliest days, or at any rate that the poison if secreted is too weak to 

 kill even small creatures. This does not accord with my own observa- 

 tions, which convince me that they enter the world with a sufficiently 

 abundant and active poison to thoroughly equip them in their struggle 

 for existence. In confirmation of my own opinion I find that Dr. 

 Shortt§ had a gravid daboia in captivity. On the production of its 

 brood, a young one, measuring only 8^ inches when 6 hours old, killed 

 a young partridge weighing 9^ tolas in 10 seconds ! The failure of 

 Colonel Bannerman's experiments must be attributed to the uncertainty 

 of the effects of the bite already alluded to. 



Furiher comments upon the poison of this snake are beyond the 

 scope of this paper. 



Faod. — All my observations go to show that small mammals, and 

 especially rats, constitute the main diet of the daboia. but it is not so 

 bigoted in gastronomic matters as to be disdainful of other fare. 

 Mr. E. E. Green found one that had eaten a green lizard (Calotes 



* Loc. cit., pp. 7 and 36. 



t First report on the Collection of Snakes in tbe Colombo Museum, 1886, p. 18. 



I Vol. XVII., p. 811. 



§ Cyclopaedia of India, Vol. V.. p. 433. 



