68 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



LIST OF SNAKES TAKEN IN TRAVANCORE 

 FROM 1888 TO 1895. 



By H. S. Fekguson, F.L.S. 



(Read before the Bomhay Natural History Society on ISth July, 1895.) 



Seven years ago I began collecting snakes systematically for the 

 Trevandrum Museum, and, by the aid of friends in the hills, and my 

 own and a native collector's exertions in the plains, have got together so 

 far some sixty species. Of these, three are new to science and have 

 been described by Mr. Boulenger in the pages of this journal, and have 

 been, or will be, figured there also. They are Rhinophis travancoricus^ 

 Rhinophis fergusonianus and Dipsas dightoni, the latter named after 

 Mr. Dighton of Pirmerd, to whose exertions and to those of Messrs. 

 Richardson, Turner and Marshall I have been mostly indebted for 

 specimens from Pirmerd, the High Range, and Ponmudi respectively. 

 It is difficult to say much about the habits of the various species, for 

 nearly all are nocturnal, and, when one does come across one in the day 

 tune, all one can do, as a rule, is to capture it without delay, so that it 

 IS not often one has the chance of watching snakes in their own haunts 

 under natural conditions. The first snake I saw in this country was a 

 few days after I landed. I was sitting in the verandah of a house in 

 Madras when my attention was drawn to a frog, which had just hopped 

 on to the road close by ; in a second it was followed by a snake that 

 seized it and at once commenced to swallow it. The friend, with whom 

 I was staying, and I ran out and intently watched the performance, 

 which proceeding appeared to cause the snake no anxiety, when sud- 

 denly there was a sound of wings, and snake and frog soared 

 away in the grasp of a Pariah kite. Imbued as I was at 

 that time with the common but erroneous notion that " cobras are 

 found every day in your slippers," and other snakes to be met with at 

 every turn, I was not at all surprised at the occurrence, but I have 

 since learned to modify this opinion and have never again been present 

 at such a veritable " chain of destruction." The fact is that unless 

 you search for snakes, and that with diligence, you hardly come across 

 a single stray one from year's end to year's end. To return to Travan- 

 core. There are eight species of Silybura recorded by Colonel Bed- 

 dome (who, when at the head of the Forest Department in Madras, 



