MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 557 
sixteen specimens, and included four more examples of the new snake. There 
were ten specimens of Silybura nigra, and one each of Xylophis perroteti and 
Platyplectrurus madurensis. 
The four Brachyophidium rhodogaster were all adults. 4185 mm. (7% inches). 
Ventrals 143. Subcaudals 10 right, 11 left. Q 178 mm. (7} inches). Ventrals 
145. Subcaudals 8. Q 178 mm. (7} inches). Ventrals 147. Subcaudals 8. 
© 200 mm. (8 inches). Ventrals 149. Subcaudals 7 right, 8 left. The lepido- 
sis in other respects conforms to that of the type. The last specimen captured 
as recently as the 22nd of November this vear, has the belly suffused with the 
most intense and beautiful tone of cerise. In the others this hue has faded in 
spirit to a yellowish colour. The light spot behind the parietals in the type is 
not noticeable in any of these four specimens. ; 
The largest 9 captured in November 1920 is gravid, and contained three large 
eggs which would have been deposited probably that month or December. 
I dissected out the skull of this specimen and find the maxillary teeth kumato- 
dont, and9innumber. The palatine and perygoids are edentulous. The mandi- 
bular are kumatodont and number 19. 
It is remarkable that a species which is so common that a small collection 
furnishes four examples, should have escaped the notice of Colonel Beddome. 
That authority exploited the South Indian Hills, including the Palni Hills to 
such purpose in the seventies and eighties of the last century, that he has 
hardly left a snake for any later enthusiast to discover. 
F. WALL, c.02z.8., 
Colonel, I.M.S. 
BANGALORE, 
lst December 1921. 
No. XXIII.—LEECH ATTACKING A SNAKE. 
This morning I found a species of Dryophis (dispar I think) crossing a road 
separating two fields of coffee. On picking it up, I noticed a small leech 
firmly attached to and lying along its right superlabials. Snakes and Leeches 
are both very common here, but I have never before seenaleech using a snake 
as a medium for quenching its everlasting thirst for blood. The incident was, 
perhaps, the more remarkable from the fact that the snake was of so essen- 
tially an aboreal species. Several species of Dryophis are extremely common 
on the coffee trees as are various species of Lachesis, but neither genus is often 
found on the ground. 
A. PP; KINLOCH, rz:s. 
NELLIAMPATHY HIrs, 
8th September 1921. 
No. XXIV.—FOOD OF THE SNAIL (INDRELLA AMPULA). 
The large pink snail of the Western Ghats (Indrella ampula) is very common 
on these hills and it may be of interest to record its feeding habits. 
