864 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



landria's head in its mouth. The landria was struggling violently to shake 

 off its foe, so much so that its own hold of the twig slipped and it fell 

 with its tail still knotted. The krait edged backwards dragging the still 

 struggling landria half way up a small bank sloping to the Residency wall. 

 When I arrived at about 7-15 the landria's struggles were getting faint 

 and they ceased altogether before long. The krait was meanwhile 

 gradually swallowing the landria ; it was slow work. We noted the time 

 taken between the engulfing of two white spots about an inch apart ; it 

 took 3f minutes. It was a puzzle to us to guess what would happen later 

 on, for the landria was the longer reptile and it was not likely that its head 

 would get much beyond the krait's middle without serious consequences to 

 the krait, the more so as the twist in the landria's hind-quarters would 

 have to be negotiated. One of the servants, Uka Bhil, suggested that the 

 krait would probably bite off the end part of the landria and thus avoid 

 the difficulty. He had seen a big snake do that to a small fellow before. 



The krait's progress grew slower as it reached the more swollen part of 

 the landria. For quite an hour the latter had been motionless and we 

 thought it must be dead ; but suddenly it began to give spasmodic twitches 

 and wriggles. 



For two and three-quarter hours the struggle had been going on and we 

 computed that 18 inches of the landria were still outside though the twist 

 in the tail which had in the struggle worked upwards to a higher point, made 

 accuracy impossible. The krait then gave some violent twitches and 

 elevated his upper jaw almost perpendicularly and began to disgorge slowly 

 at first, then rapidly drawing himself back in order to do so, in a few 

 seconds he was clear and back in his normal dimensions. He proceeded to 

 make off, but seeing people about, he lay under shelter of a flower pot and 

 was then despatched. 



The landria seemed unharmed in body except for glazed eyes, distorted 

 jaw, frayed scales and the broken part in his midbody. 



The landria was still living. Uka Bhil says the landria lives in roofs and 

 trees ; the krait in holes in the ground. The scene was witnessed by H. H. 

 the Maharao, Col. H. M. Abud, M. N. S. Vijayarajji and myself besides 

 numerous servants, 



J. H. SMITH. 



[The Landria proved to be the Common brown Tree Snake (Dipmdomorphus trigo- 

 natus). The Kraits are well known to feed on other snakes and frequently are 

 found in the roofs of houses. — Eds-] 



No. XX.— CASE OF SNAKE BITE FROM HIMALAYAN VIPER. 



Having read several letters in the Journal about snake bite, I send you 

 a few notes on a case which I was called on to treat last August, hoping 

 they may prove of interest. About 9 a.m. on 24th August 1910 the 



