10 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXL 



Sloughing. — A few notes were made in Madras a few years 

 back. One specimen desquamated on the 18th of April, 18th of 

 May, 6th of August, and 9th of October in 1895. Another 

 (perhaps the same snake) shed its skin on the 30th of April, 4th 

 of June, 22nd of July, and the 4th of October 1896. Another 

 (perhaps the same specimen) cast its slough on the 13th of June, 

 23rd of September, and 24th of December 1897.* Like our other 

 Indian representatives of its famil}^, its ecdysis occurs about 4 

 times a- year at rather irregular intervals. 



Parasites — I have paid very little attention to this subject, but 

 it is almost certainly infested with Entozoa like the python, and 

 most other snakes. I have found ticks attached to its skin, and 

 those though not identified are almost certain to prove a species of 

 Ajponomma. A blood parasite the Hcemogregarina cantliei has 

 been discovered inhabiting the blood cells. f 



Bistrihution — Peninsula India from the base of the Himalayas to 

 Cape Comorin, and Northern Ceylon. In the North- West it 

 extends to Sind and Baluchistan, and in the North-East to Behar 

 and Lower Bengal. Major H. H. Magrath sent me a fragment of 

 a skin of an Eryx from Bannu that might be this species or jaculus, 

 more probably the latter. 



It is a snake of the Plains, but like many other species ascends 

 some distance into hilly regions. There are specimens in the 

 British and the Indian Museums of Colonel Beddome's collecting 

 from the Anamallays, altitude not specified. Father Dreckman 

 has met with it in Khandalla, (circa 2,000 ft.) and there is a speci- 

 men from Poona (circa 3,000 ft.) in our Society's collection. In 

 the Indian Museum there is a single example from Palair in the 

 Naini Tal District, but the altitude is not recorded. Von Schla- 

 gentweit's specimen in the British Museum is reported from 

 Sikkim — a most improbable locality — though of course it is pos- 

 sible it may have been acquired from a juggler, this snake being 

 seen so frequently in the possession of this nomadic class. 



The accompanying map shows the precise localities from which 

 it has been reported. 



* This valuable information was communicated to me by Dr. J. S. Henderson.. 

 tManson. Trop. diseases l!)07, p. Sl'.t.. 



