ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 613 



whilst some show a decided partiality towards frogs, others find 

 toads more attractive. In India it is usually the frogs Rana 

 cyanophlyctis, or the young of R. tigrina that form its principle 

 sustenance, these being perhaps the commonest frogs to be met 

 with. For the same reason young toads of the species Bufo melano- 

 stictus are most frequently devoured. I have known R. breviceps, 

 and Microhyla ornata taken in Fyzabad, and Oxyglossus laevis, and 

 a species of Rhacophorus probably leucomystax in Burma. On 

 several occasions I have found toads ingested, once a young Bufo 

 ■anderscmi in Fj<zabad having proved the victim. I once found a 

 gecko in a young specimen in Assam, but have nevei heard of a 

 lizard being taken except on this occasion, and never a mammal. 

 Usually a single frog, or toad satisfies its appetite, but I have 

 more than once found as many as three in the stomach. 



Colonel G. H. Evans, whose attention was once arrested b\ 

 pitiful wails, found on investigation a frog in the jaws of a stolatus. 

 It had been seized " a posteriori," and the snake when discovered 

 made tracks without releasing its captive and succeeded in reach- 

 ing a crevice in the ground some thirty yards away, down which it 

 managed to insinuate itself by some lateral manoeuvre head last 

 still retaining hold of the frog. It was dug out, and froggie when 

 released hopped away. Mr. Millard, who has known this species 

 in captivity for over twenty years, tells me that they feed greedily 

 on frogs, in fact he " cannot remember ever having seen it feed on 

 anything else." On the other hand Mr. E. E. Green, who has a 

 very intimate knowledge of the species in Ceylon, tells me that in 

 captivity " it will look at nothing but the toad Bufo melanostictus.'' 

 and he relates how on one occasion two stolatus seized the same 

 toad in his vivarium, each proceeding to swallow from opposite- 

 points of seizure, till their noses met, when the larger snake began 

 to engulf the smaller, but at this stage of the proceedings he 

 interfered. In the Madras Museum * one buffstriped keelback 

 ate 131 toads in the year, another 130, and a third 91 green frogs. 

 Murray f says that in Sind like piscator it lives in pools, and feeds 

 on fish. If this is a fact, its habits in that locality are different 

 from those manifested in other parts of India. 



* Administration Report 1896-7. f Vert. Zool. Sind, p. 380. 



