MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 1341 



the wound and looked rather frightened and then went on showing his 

 snakes ; he is stiU alive and doing his regular work. 



H. F. SAUNDERS. 



The Fort, Gwalior, C. I., ^Qth August 1912. 



[This subject was thrashed out in the early numbers of our Journal, Vols. Ill 

 and IV (1888-9), but the belief is still apparently as strong as ever in Grujerat, 

 Sind, Rajputana, Central India and Baluchistan that the young of the VaranidcB — 

 otherwise known as Monitors or "Ghorpads," " gho-samps," also " Bis-cobras" — 

 are poisonous. 



It is difficult to trace whence this opinion has arisen. In Kaira, Gujerat, it is 

 known as " Chandan-goli " and is " said to be as deadly as a cobra and able to 

 spring ten paces" (A. Wood, I.C.S.). 



Other lizards in India also bear an equally evil reputation, particularly Euhle- 

 pharis hardwickii and E- macularius, but so far as can be ascertained no lizard in 

 India is poisoiious. 



According to Mr. E. E. Green "the Braliminy Lizard," the common skink, 

 Mabuia carinata, holds a similar reputation in Ceylon. He mentions a case in 

 which a lady was bitten by one of these lizards. The injured finger in a few 

 hours' time became swollen and tender but by next day practically all the 

 swelling and tenderness had disappeared. — Eds.] 



No. XXIX.— THE FOOD OF A BULL-FKOG {RAN A TIQRINA). 



In Vol. XXI, No. 2 of our Journal, Mr. S. P. Agharkar states a few things 

 about the diet of a bull-frog {Rana tigrina) and remarks at the end of his 

 note that " further observations on this point by our members would yield 

 interesting results." Taking advantage of this remark I put down a few 

 observations on the subject. 



On the 5th of September 1910 I dissected a freshly caught frog ( Rana 

 tigrina ) before my B.A. students. On opening the animal, the very first 

 thing, which struck me, was the unusual size of the stomach. I made an 

 incision on the wall of the stomach and on carefully examining the con- 

 tents I found to my surprise a big mole-cricket ( Gryllotalpides ), twenty 

 maggots of a fly, a big beetle ( Scarabcsidce ), a small shell of a snail and 

 some green vegetable product. 



On another occasion, I had put a frog in the cage of a John's earth snake 

 {Eryx johni) to serve the latter as its food. In the cage as much of the 

 sand was spread as would be sufficient for the snake to hide itself. After 

 3 days when I saw that the snake would not go for the frog, I took out the 

 latter and dissected it. On dissection it was found out that the stomach 

 was tensely filled with sand. I cannot say definitely whether the frog had 

 swallowed sand to get some nourishment from the small insects in the sand 

 or for some other purpose. 



Biological Laboratory, J. P. MULLAN, m.a. 



St. Xavier's College, Bombay, \Qth August 1912. 

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