m JOURNAL, NATUBAL HIST. SOCIETY OF SIAM. Vol. L 



the road one morning; a.t Samsen.. It never grew accustomed to being 

 liandled, and the photograph was taken after it had been four months 

 ill capitivity, when it was nearly as wild and fierce as on the day it 

 was captui-ed. Young ones I have kept were niore gentle and soon 

 became tame. 



The largest specimen I know of meas-ared 1710' mm. but was 

 incomplete. The tail was 3O0 mm. long, and the lost tip would 

 probably have added another 30 mm, to it. 



Color ( in life ). Above, yellowish-brown, fawn or fawn-grey, 

 with a distinct reddish tinge posteriorly. Along each side of the fore- 

 part of the body are three black stripes, the upper, broad and 

 conspicuous, the second, half the width and shorter, the third, very thin 

 and much broken up, or occasionally absent altogether. Below, 

 3'ellowish white in front, jxile pearly gi'ey behind. Subcaudals, 

 whitish. A black line across the occiput amd three moi'e radiating 

 from the eye. 



Distrihaiion. From the E. Himalayas to S. China and the 

 3Ialay Archipelago. 



18. Dendrophis pictus. Tlie Painted Tree Snake. 



A fairly common snake, and widely distributed everywhere, 

 frequenting the open brush-wood in the fields, the betel-nut and fruit 

 gardens, and the compounds in the very heart of the town ; loving the 

 sunshine and on the move at all hours of the day. In dull weather it is 

 much less active. It is thoroughly arboreal in its habits, and 

 although it may be seen upon the ground, it is, I believe, only when 

 in search of food. The speed at which it can travel when disturbed is 

 amaz.ing, and is almost lightning-like in its rapidity. 



Curiously enough, for a creature oi such marked arboreal 

 tendencies, its diet appears to consist entirel}^ of frogs, not only 

 tree-frogs, which are comparatively rare, but the common frogs of the 

 padi-fields. 1 have never found anj'thing else in the stomachs of 

 fr^pecimens I have examined, and those I have kept in captivity lived 

 entirely upon this diet, refusing all other kinds of food. The com- 

 monest field frog here is Rana Umnocaris, and these constitute their 

 main diet, but they are by no means particular. Oxyglossis lima 

 they refused, but there must be something very distasteful about this 

 little frog, for 1 have never known any snake to eat it. 



