728 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVIII. 



On the other hand I have twice known frogs eaten, and Fayrer * 

 records a similar experience. In the Administration Report of the 

 Madras Museum, 1896 to 1897, one specimen is reported to have 

 eaten 2 frogs, and another 18 frogs during incarceration. 1 have 

 twice found toads (Bufo andersonii) in the stomach, and once a 

 monitor lizard ( Varanus flavescens). Small mammals too are occasional- 

 lv devoured. I once found a rnuskrat (Croc/dura cceruleus) in gastro, 

 and Assistant Surgeon Robertson told me he found 5 young muskrats 

 taken on one occasion. I have twice seen a brood of young mice 

 which had been swallowed, and in Bannerman's escaped specimen, 

 when ultimately recovered, the meal consisted of 6 newly born rats. 

 Captain Liston, I. M.S., tells me that at Parel they have lately found 

 that both kraits and Russell's vipers readily eat the young fetus from 

 rats in an advanced state of pregnancy. 



Sloughing. — The krait casts its skin probably every month. One 

 in captivity in the Madras Museum, captured on the 7th November 

 1896, sloughed on the 7th December 1^96, the loth January, and 27th 

 February 1897.f 



Haunts. — Fayrer says, " It is found in the fields, grassy plains, rice 

 khets, low scrubby jungle, and among debris of wood and buildings. 

 It sometimes insinuates itself into houses, in the verandah, bathrooms, 

 on the ledges of doors or jhilmils, into bo >k cases, cupboards, etc." 

 Millard writes to me, " It is very fond of living in the roofs of bunga- 

 lows." TheoboldJ speaking of kraits as a group says. " They delight in 

 water and its vicinity," an observation which receives support among 

 others from Father Castels, S.J., who writes to me that in Trichinopoly 

 " small specimens have been brought to me in bundles of 20 or more 

 caught, as they said, in water." I have had several specimens brought 

 to me that were captured in water. Ttiese were, 1 think, always cap- 

 tured in the hot weather, which seems to show that they grow very 

 thirsty and for this reason they frequently get into places from which 

 they cannot extricate themselves, such as wells, and the little pukka 

 tanks connected with the irrigation arrangements so commonly seen 

 m Indian Gardens. 



* Loc. cit., p. 121. 

 i Administration Report, 1896 to 1897. 

 j Jourl. Asiatic Soc. bengal, 1868, p. IV. 



