SNAKES 93 



had received a specimen of 9} feet in length, which 

 had made its appearance inside a house in Kuching, 

 and another of over 10 feet. This species is a snake- 

 eater, and I am inclined to think that snakes form 

 its sole article of diet. Mr. Ridley has seen a 

 Hamadryad holding a small Python in its mouth ; 

 the Python was not dead, but expired very shortly 

 after its enemy had been driven off. A Malay reported 

 to my predecessor at the Sarawak Museum, the late 

 Mr. Edward Bartlett, that he had seen a Python and 

 a Hamadryad fighting, but he killed both snakes whilst 

 the issue of the combat was still in doubt. Capt. F. 

 Wall r gives a list of snakes that have been recorded as 

 victims of the Hamadryad : these are the Banded Krait, 

 the Cobra, the Hamadryad itself, and the Indian Python. 

 Mr. L. Wray records Adeniophis (Doliophis) bivirgatus, 

 the Banded Krait, and two non-poisonous Colubrines 

 as having been taken from the stomachs of Hama- 

 dryads captured in the Malay Peninsula. 2 It is quite 

 evident that snakes are not immune to the poison 

 of other snakes, even to that of their own species, 

 and in a combat between two poisonous species he 

 must be four times armed who "gets his blow in 

 fust." 



The next species on our list of poisonous snakes are 

 Doliophis bivirgatus and D. intestinalis, two small and 

 very brightly coloured species. The natives of the 

 Malay Peninsula assert that both species progress 

 with their tails held up in the air, thus exhibiting 

 to best advantage the red colouring of the under side 

 and warning their enemies of their poisonous properties ; 



1 Journ. Bombay N.H. Soc. f XVII. (1906-07), p. 393. 



a Journ. Fed. Malay States A/MS., II. (1907), p. 64. Signed L. W. 



