460 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



but is coloured in a similar manner, except that the yellow 

 bands are comparatively narrow, and do not completely 

 encircle the body. D. dendrophilus is nocturnal in its 

 habits, and lives among long grass or mangrove roots. In 

 such an environment it is concealed by its stripes, just as a 

 tiger is concealed among reeds. Now katam-tehu are little 

 round pieces of yellowish sugar-cane, pierced together on 

 skewers of bamboo, and sold in the Malayan markets. In 

 the snakes, the yellow bars are taken to represent these 

 pieces of sugar-cane, and the black bands the spaces 

 between them. Thus we see that the Malay name exactly 

 expresses what does take place in nature, for the object 

 of the coloration of these snakes appears to be that 

 they may be concealed in an environment in which actual 

 objects of a more or less yellow colour alternate with 

 black spaces. 



Of course it would not be safe to adduce much from mere 

 names given to animals by unscientific people like the 

 Malays, for their own surmises are often glaringly inaccu- 

 rate. For example, they call the tadpoles of Ichthyophis 

 glutinosa, Ular Tedong Sendok Riidm, because they believe 

 that these larvse bite like the cobra {Ular Tedong Sendok, 

 " Spoon-hood "), and turn into a fish called Ikan Buam. I 

 was once led into a singular error by speculating upon a 

 Malay name. At Biserat, in Jalor, where there is a con- 

 siderable Siamese population, the adult Ichthyophis is 

 sometimes called Ular Belo Gelenggong, sometimes grouped 

 together with Typhlops and Cylindrophis under the descrip- 

 tive terms Ular Kdpald Ekor (" Tail-headed Snake "), Ular 

 Dua Kapala (" Two-headed Snake "), and Ular Tanah ("Earth 

 Snake "), but very generally known as Ular KlKng. Hearing 

 the last name first, and being ignorant that the ordinary 

 Siamese name for Ichthyophis is Ngit Kling^ I concluded that 

 the Ular Kling was so called because it was black like an 

 Orang Kling or Tamil, and I entered a provisional note to 

 that effect in my note-book, a Malay having politely agreed 

 with me when I broached the theory in conversation. This 

 was in the days of my inexperience, and I became distinctly 

 wiser when I discovered that the name had simply been 



