MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



403 



A summary of all the kraits upon which I have notes, which have been 

 referred by me to the two sajiposed species (now united) may prove instruc- 

 tive to others, and I have shown their distribution on the accompanjang 

 maps : — 



LOCALITIES ON MAPS. 



Map C. 



Almoka, Ath June 1913. 



F. WALL, c.jM.z.s., Major, i.m.s. 



No. XXIII.— AN UNUSUALLY LARGE SEA-SNAKE 

 {DISTIRA BRUGMANSI). 



Whilst at anchor in Penang Harbour last year, I was leaning over the 

 rail watching some small fish, when my attention was called to a large 

 sea-snake swimming by the ship. I immediately called two lascars and 

 sent them away in a boat with sticks, to try and catch it ; they however 

 were afraid to go close to it, but managed, after a lot of bad shots to 

 strike it on the head with a stick, which stunned it ; by this time I had 

 a line ready, with a slip knot at the end, and by good luck, flung the loop 

 just over its head, and we hauled it up on deck. The moment it was 

 on deck though it came to life again and got out of the loop of the line. 

 The boatswain and carpenter arrived by this time with more sticks, and 

 we had quite a lively time, owing to there being not much space to jump 

 about in ; we struck at it several times, missing of course, much to the 

 delight of the passengers, who were collected along the hurricane deck 

 rail, watching the sport and giving advice. At last I got in a blow, which 

 again stunned it, we then quickly tied a stout piece of logline round its 

 neck ; the boatswain and myself pulled together with all our might and 

 tried to choke it. The snake however refused to be choked in this way, 

 so after about half an hour we hauled it on to the forecastle head and 

 hung it up in the rigging, so that its whole weight came on the cord round 

 its neck ; even then 1 regret to say it took a very long time to die. 



The same evening after leaving Penang we cut it down and with the 



assistance of the ship's surgeon started to skin it, as I had no means of 



preserving the whole specimen, which was a great pity as this was the 



largest sea-snake I have ever seen. It measured 9 feet from snout to tip 



2i 



