636 JOURNAL BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



gives the southern limit of this snake as " only known from the Peninsula 

 m the North-East as far South as the Basin of the Mahanadi River," which 

 is about 190 miles North-East of the present locality. 



N. B. KINNEAR. 

 Bombay Natural History Society, 1913. 



No. XXXII.— KRAITS IN THE DERA ISMAIL KHAN DISTRICT. 



This district seems to be rich in Kraits, and according to their habit 

 they are always to be found hunting in pairs. Kill a Krait and look for 

 its mate is a very sound principle on which to act, it will answer in every 

 case : otherwise one is asking for trouble. Moreover, all I have seen 

 here appear to be of an unusually large variety, and I have not met any 

 measuring under 3 feet in length. During the hot weather in August, I 

 saw 2 pairs which had been killed and which were fine ordinary Kraits of 

 the species Bungarus coeruleus averaging about 3'-6". 



In the middle of September my regiment went out to Tank, which is 

 42 miles north and a few degrees west of Dera Ismail Khan. There, in less 

 than a month, within a very small area, 3 pairs were killed : all very 

 large and all of the Sind variety, Bungarus sindanus. The last pair killed 

 were very big, each measuring over 4 feet in length, and they were very 

 vicious. The first one was killed lying along the step of a well and then 

 the mate suddenly appeared from near at hand and struck at the mali 

 repeatedly, fortunately it only struck him on the skirt of his clothing 

 and then it was despatched. 



I do not know whether Sind and Common Kraits are found together but 

 it seems' curious that these two species should be locally distributed in 

 places which are only 42 miles apart. 



Next year, when my regiment will spend four of the hot weather months 

 at Tank, I hope to find out more about the distribution of these Kraits. 



C. R. S. PITMAN, 

 Deka Ismail Khan, 27th Punjabis. 



November, 1912. 



No. XXX III.— A SNAKE-CHARMER'S PERFORMANCE. 



On 21st September 1913, I was visited by an old Burman snake-charmer, 

 and his performance was so remarkable that I requested him to come again 

 and repeat it before some friends, whom I invited to come and watch. I 

 had a double object in doing this, first, in order to give me an opportu- 

 nity to check my own observations, and, if necessary, correct them; and, 

 secondly, to procure the additional evidence of two independent observers. 

 Unfortunately the old man did not turn up on the next day as he was said 

 to be suffering from an attack of fever, and when he did appear on the third 

 day (yesterday) he was so obviously shaking with fever that his performance 

 did not come up to that given on the first day. I was able, however, to 

 check my original observations and conclusions satisfactorily ; and I think 

 it will be interesting to describe the whole performance in detail as it 

 appeared to the observers first, adding my own conclusions afterwards. 



The old man himself would have delighted the heart of an artist. He 

 gave his name as U Hla Baw of Yenaung village, about 8 miles from 

 Pyawbwe. He was of moderate height, spare figure, wrinkled and almost 

 toothless, and his hands scarred and knotted to a degree, the little finger 



