THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 461 



by natives "jaman"'. My informant was Mr. J. H. Mitchell, a 

 planter in Assam. 



In captivity the python usually eats heartily and frequently, 

 accepting anything that is offered, as the following annual bills of 

 fare will show : — Phipson* says one in Bombay ate 23 rats, 3 hens, 

 3 crows, and 1 kestrel. One in Madras f ate 82 jerboas, but would 

 not touch house rats ; another ate 59 jerboas, 8 squirrels and 2 

 quails ; a third accounted for 37 rats, 21 squirrels and 3 quails. 



In Travancore one ate a spotted deer and 1 1 fowls ; another 1 

 nilghai fawn, 1 hare, 1 rabbit, 13 fowls, and 1 pond heron ; a 

 third ate 14 fowls and 1 crown pigeon ; a fourth 2 dogs, 2 hare 

 wallabies, 2 bandicoots, and 54 fowls, a fifth 4 bandicoots, 19 

 fowls, and 1 spotted dove, and a sixth 1 hare wallaby, 1 bandicoot 

 and 15 fowls. \ 



It not infrequently happens that where two are caged together 

 both strike at the same animal, and begin to shallow from opposite 

 ends till their noses meet, when if one does not relinquish its 

 hold, one gets its jaws over the other and swallows its mate. 

 This happened once in Regent's Park and once in our Society's 

 RoomsIF when both struck at the same partridge, and similar 

 occurrences have been reported in other institutions where snakes 

 are kept. 



The young which hatched out in Travancore are reported to 

 have eaten the rats offered to them. 



One sometimes hears of human beings being swallowed bv 

 pythons, but though I have collected several instances of other large 

 snakes overcoming men I have no authentic instance of this snake 

 doing so, but it is amply capable of overpowering the strongest 

 man. A young European told me once in Hong Kong that he had 

 witnessed as a boy with his brothers, a large snake (almost 

 certainty a molurus) swallow a Chinese baby on Stone Cutter's 

 Island in the Harbour. The mother left the child while engaged 

 in some work, and the boys were afraid to encounter so formidable 



* Jourl. B. N. H. S. Vol. II, p. 16(3. t Kindly communicated to me by Dr. J. 

 R. Henderson. 

 X For this information I am indebted to Colonel F. W. Dawson. 

 *| Jourl. Bomb. N. H. S. Vol. XIV, p. 395. 



