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



No. XXV.— OCCUKRENCE OF THE SMEW {MERGUS 

 ALBELLUS) IN THE UPPER CHINDWIN. 



Whilst shooting with a party on December 11th, two birds were seen 

 by myself and several others, which I have little doubt were Smews. 

 Unfortunately, they were far out of shot, but the general appearance of the 

 bird v/as white, and black markings on the head and wings were clearly 

 visible. If they were not Smews, can any member suggest what they 

 were likely to be ? 



CYRIL HOPWOOD, i.f.s. 

 KiNDAT, U. Chindwin, Bxtbma, ^ 



nth December 1913. 



No. XXVI.— THE COMMON AND SIND KRAITS {BUNGARUS 

 C^RULEUS AND SIND A^ US). 



A CORRECTION. 



On page 401 of Volume XXII of this Journal, I commented upon a krait 

 that had been sent to me from our Secretary reported to have come from 

 Jhelum. This specimen was one with 17 scale rows, and I remarked that 

 it was the first that I had any knowledge of with 17 rows from the Punjab. 

 I have now heard from the donor Captain F. L. Hughes that he captured 

 it at Dera Ismail Khan, but omitted to specify the locality when sending a 

 small collection of snakes from Jhelum to our Secretary. The correction 

 is an important one in view of my remarks already alluded to, and I think 

 further evidence is called for in regard to the distribution of 17 scale 

 kraits before pronouncing the two supposed species cceruleus and sindanus 

 identical. I may further remark that Captain Hughes tells me he killed 

 several kraits at Dera Ismail Khan, and that all had 17 scale rows. 



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

 Almora, 14,th January 1914. 



No. XXVII.— SNAKE-CHARMER'S PERFORMANCE. 



With reference to the Miscellaneous Note (No. XXXIII) in the current 

 Volume (p. 636) by Captain Venning, I saw an almost similar performance 

 in Minbu in 1911. The snake in my case was as nearly as could be measur- 

 ed just under 12 feet. The fangs had not been removed. As in Captain 

 Venning's case, I noticed that it took a lot of noise and pulling about to 

 rouse the snake. Also that when the snake did strike, it only partly 

 opened the mouth or more often did not open it at all. The snake also 

 appeared to have a very bad aim and to strike aiid move heavily and 

 clumsily so much so that I came to the conclusion that it was heavily 

 drugged. The snake charmer (?) denied this. After watching the perfor- 

 mance closely for some time I took the snake myself and examined it close 

 by examining its teeth and looking for any injury and particularly for the 

 smell of opium, but could detect nothing wrong. The snake made no 

 attempt at any active movement while I was handling it nor when quietly 

 released did it attempt either to attack or escape. It took a good shake 

 at its tail from its owner to rouse it again. My man did not lick the snake 

 but once or twice struck the snake lightly on the point of the nose with his 

 fingers. 



