'I'HE FOOD OF THE HAMADJiYAD. 



''PHE HHUiiulniul. Noia hiuHjariis, Schley-., is the lart>-est of poisououb 

 snakes. Lvtlekker iu the "Koval Natural History" gives the size 

 as Vo feet aud states that it probably grows larger. The longest oue 

 iu the collection of the Perak Museum, measured in the flesh 14 feet 

 i* inches. I have heard of larger specimens, but have had no means 

 of verifying the measurements. 



0^)hioi)lia(jus, one of the synonyms of the Hamadryad, means 

 " suake-eating," iu allusion to its well-known habit of devouring 

 mcud)crs of its own order. It, however, does not appear to have been 

 recorded that it eats, not only innocuous, but poisonous snakes as well. 

 Two instances of this have come under my observation. In the tirst a 

 Hamadryad of aljout 10 feet in length was caught by hitting it with 

 a stick, when it disgorged a 6-feet long Sun-snake (Adeniophia 

 birinjofus, Boie.), which had only just been swallowed. The second 

 case was t)f a Hamadryad which was caught and killed while in the 

 act of eugluttiug a Bumjarux fasciatus, Cantor. 



The Sun-snake is, although poisonous, not -jf a very virulent type, 

 aud has sdch a small gape that it would be no match for a powerful 

 snake like the King Cobra. The Bumjarus fasciattis, on the other hand, 

 'is one t.f the more poisonous species, and is. according to the Fauna of 

 British India, a snake-eater itself. Cantor in his " Catalogue of Kep- 

 tiles inhabiting the Malayan Peninsula and Islands " writes : " A fowl, 

 four minutes after it had been bitten on the inner side of the thigh by 

 a Butitjarus fanciatus, fell on the wounded side and was shortly after 

 seized with slight purging. The eyes were half closed, the pupils 

 alternately dilated aud contracted, immoVtilc. In seventeen minutes 

 slight spasms occurred, under which the bird expired forty-tliree 

 minutes after it had Ijeen wounded. 



"Another fowl, w^ouuded in the same place as the former by the 

 same seri)ent, but, after an interval of seven hours, expired under 

 similar symtoms, only more violent spasms, in the course of tweuty- 

 eitrht minutes." 



'o' 



B<-ariiig on this subject, 8ir J. Fayrer, Bt., k.c.s.i., in the 

 •■ 'J'hauatophidia <jf India" writ^'s : "I have not Ijeen able to satisfy 

 myself positively, after many experiments made on purpose, that the 

 poisonous snakes are absolutely iusensiljle to their own, or to the 

 venom of others, but to a greats extent they certainly are so. 



" I have repeatedly made Cobras and Daboias bite themselves, and 

 «u;h other, and they never seemed the worse for it. But I believe 

 that the poison does take effect on snakes of a less deadly chantcter, 

 aud although T have generally seen the Binujunix escai>e, I have seen 

 a^i occasional death of this snake after a bite bv a Cobra thai. I think, 



