THE SNAKE AND ITS NATURAL FOES. 



393 



ting cannibalism. The Hamadryad {Naia hung arm) has a particularly 

 evil reputation, feeding as it does, almost exclusively, upon snakes; and 

 if its voracity in its native haunts approaches that during captivity, the 

 death-roll from this single species must be very considerable, for JMiss 

 Hopley* informs us that one specimen in the London Zoo disposed 

 of as many as 82 snakes in one winter, and a writer to "The Field " 

 (April 16th, 1904) says that a specimen, 8|- feet long (by no means a 

 large one), in the Trivandrum gardens consumed as many as 44 rat- 

 snakes in one year. It is certainly notable that in the majority of 

 instances on record where this snake has been killed, it has been found 

 to have lately fed, and hazarding a guess I think I am well within the 

 mark when I say of all other snakes which are brought to me not more 

 than one in ten contains anything " in gastro. " The kraits do not 

 exhibit so voracious an appetite but those that are killed that have 

 dined give abundant proof of their partiality to the flesh of their own 

 brethren. Many other snakes in a state of captivity prey upon one 

 another, but I do not think that this argues that they would do so in 

 their natural state ; and I am inclined to believe that with the majority 

 it is only when hunger presses sorely, that they devour one another. 

 I have collected all the instances I can find where ophiophagy has been 

 perpetrated in a state of nature among our Indian representatives, 

 which I append in tabular form. 



•"Snakes," p. 5G0. 



