MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 809 



I have always been firmly convinced that that snake was drugged pro- 

 bably by the administration of an opium pill and I am the more certain 

 because the owner made no objections to my handling the snake, which I 

 think he would have done if he had not been sure that the snake was 

 harmless in its then condition. 



A. G. FRERE, Capt., i.a. 



St. Thomas Mount, 

 Madras, 8th January 1914. 



No. XXVIII.— FOOD OF TROUT {SALMO FARIO) IN KASHMIR. 



With reference to cannibalism by trout, I would here note my observa- 

 tions in Kashmir on this point. 



(1) I have never j'^et caught a trout with a trout inside it, though it is 

 the commonest thing to find loaches and other small native fish in trout 

 caught. Mr. Phelps tells me that his experience in this respect corres- 

 ponds with mine. 



(2) During the last few days we have been collecting the small trout 

 cut off in parts from tlie rapidly drying bed of the lower Arrali. In 

 catching and bringing these into the ponds in the warm sun, a certain per- 

 centage generally die. Sodhama, when feeding the big trout in one of the 

 ponds threw in 20 or 30 of these small dead trout. No doubt some of 

 them were swallowed as they were thrown in as these big trouts are 

 accustomed to get native fish of about the same size, but most of them 

 are still* lying untouched in the bottom of the pond. Sodhama says that 

 some of these were ejected and they bear marks confirmative of this. 

 The trout of the pond still" continue to take greedily any small Kashmiri 

 fish thrown in. My attention was drawn to what had occurred by seeing 

 so many small dead fish in the clear water of this pond. I think the 

 above seems to indicate that cannibalism is not natural among S. fario and 

 is only resorted to in special cases where other food is not available or 

 possibly as in the case of man-eating tigers where the taste has been 

 acquired during a period of starvation due to some special cause. When 

 food of other species is available in sufficient quantities there appears to 

 be little danger of the cannibalistic tendency developing. 



F. J. MITCHELL, 



Srinagar, Director, Trout Culture. 



November 17th, 1913. 



No. XXIX.— PERIODS OF FLIGHT OF CERTAIN BUTTERFLIES. 



On page 26 of Vol. XIX of the Journal, in the series on Common Butter- 

 flies of India, it is stated that " the vast majority breed more or less all 

 the year round. The matter of the number of broods seems to depend 

 really altogether on the food-plant, if it is one that produces young leaves 

 only once in the year and at a particular season, the butterfly whose larva 

 feeds on those young leaves will be found only at that time ; if it has 

 eatable leaves all the year round, and if the caterpillar will feed upon 

 other than young leaves also, then the butterfly will have broods following 

 each other without intermission though the time between any two will 

 always be shortest when the leaves are young and fresh." 



* When this was written two or three days later. 



