SNAKES 97 



rina valakadien in rather peculiar circumstances : we 

 were fishing with a seine net in very shallow water at 

 the mouth of the Trusan River, and after one haul I 

 noticed the head and neck of a Sea-Snake protruding 

 through the mesh of the net ; since the mesh was fairly 

 wide, I could not understand how so slender a crea- 

 ture failed to get through and make its escape, but on 

 closer examination I saw that its passage was blocked 

 by the enormous distension of its stomach, which con- 

 tained a fish measuring about 3 inches in depth ; if 

 ever a snake could express disgust at an awkward situa- 

 tion resulting from its own greed, that snake certainly 

 did. The same haul of the net brought up a young 

 Sawfish, and the tremendous power exhibited by the 

 thrashing blows of the saw against the sides of our 

 canoe as the fish twitched its head from side to side in 

 the convulsive movements of death was quite a revela- 

 tion to me. What with an angry poisonous snake 

 entangled in the net, and a lusty young Sawfish leap- 

 ing about the floor of a crank canoe cumbered with 

 fishing gear, we had quite a lively time of it until the 

 fish received its quietus, and the snake found its last 

 resting-place in a jar of spirit. The fish found in the 

 snake's stomach was Chorinemns toloo, one of the Horse- 

 Mackerel tribe : it is provided with a strong dorsal and 

 two strong pectoral spines. 



Dr. Annandale 1 records the occurrence of this Sea- 

 Snake in great quantities in Patani Bay, Malay Penin- 

 sula, and states that they feed very largely on Siluroid 

 fish and others provided with strong spines. As he 

 took many specimens of the snakes with these spines 

 protruding from their bodies, and as they did not seero 

 1 Fasciculi Malayenses, Zoology, Pt. I. (1903), p. 167. 



