ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 945 



degree that is really necessary seems to me a dangerous proceeding 

 for the layman to adopt, a better plan is to destroy the bitten part 

 freely with red hot iron, or nitric acid and subsequently to apply 

 permanganate. 



Fables. — Mr. E. Muir tells me that about Kalna it is said to 

 have two mouths, one at the caudal extremit}^ and is reputed to 

 be able to move forwards or backwards. Also that it is said to 

 make a noise like the bellowing of a cow, which reminds me of 

 the traveller Chateaubriand's description of a S. American snake he 

 had met which when approached became flat, appeared of different 

 colours, hissed like a mountain eagle and bellowed like a bull ! 



Uses. — The same informant says that the bones are sometimes 

 made into necklaces, and worn by Hindus. 



Parasites. — Entozoa of several kinds infest this snake. I have 

 found two distinct nematode worms in the stomach which were 

 identified by Professor Von Linstow* as Kalicephalus willeyi-f, and 

 larval and immature forms of an Ascaris. One of these, I forget 

 which, anchors itself to the coats of the stomach and is found 

 attached there after death, but the other is free, and though I 

 believe inhabits this organ exclusively in life is often found to 

 have wandered into the intestine after death, or into the gullet, and 

 mouth. The Pterocercus or larval form of a tape worm, which Von 

 Linstow suggests may be harboured in its adult form by birds of 

 prey that devour snakes, is a very frequent parasite in the intestine. 

 A fourth parasite is the linguatulid Poroeephalus crotali\, a maggot- 

 like, whitish animal half to three-quarters of an inch long, which 

 attaches itself by four hooks to the mesenteric tissues, and does 

 not enter organs. 



Distribution. — The Mahanadi Basin, Eastern half of the Ganges 

 System, Brahmaputra, and Irrawadi-Salween Basins, through 

 Indo-China to South China in the East, and through the Malayan 

 Peninsula to the Archipelago as far East as Java. Within our 

 Indian Dominions it is a common snake in Burma, Assam and 



* Record, Ind. Mus., Vol. II, Part 1, p. 109. 



t Spol. Zeylan, Vol. I, p. \) ( J. 



X Bombay N. H. Journal, Vol. XIX, p. 837. 



