MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 371 



No. XXVIII.— NOTE ON ERYX C0NICU8. 

 In Major Wall's article on Erijx conicus in Vol. XXI, p. 2, he mentions a 

 case of this snake killing a lizard but making no attempt to eat it. A few 

 mornings ago I watched a conicus with a large garden lizard round which it 

 had coiled itself. Unfortunately I did not see the beginnino- of the 

 encounter, for undoubtedly there had been a fierce struggle before the snake 

 had got its coils round the lizard, and thus rendered it more or less helpless. 

 The snake had been severely bitten in three places, all of which were 

 bleeding, and one bite was so deep that a parb of its bowels were protrud- 

 ing. It was most interesting to watch how the snal-ie avoided the sharp 

 spines on the lizard's back, but it had a cruel grip round the lower part of 

 the body and hind legs, and was doing its best to swallow one of its lea's 

 but it was eventually obliged to disgorge this. It then tried to get at the 

 lizard's head, but here it met its match, for unfortunately for itself the 

 snake brought its neck within reach of its victim's jaws wl.ich promptly 

 closed on it, biting viciously. The snake after one or two attempts to o-et 

 the spiky head into its mouth, suddenly relaxed its coils, and the lizard 

 shot away, with a broken leg. As far as I could see, ia spite of the well 

 known squeezing powers of Eiyx conious no other damage had been done to 

 the lizard. "While I was examining the lizard the snake, much to my 

 regret, crawled into a hole. Eryx conicus is quite common here, but in Gya. 

 where I examined many snakes, I never saw one. A friend here told me 

 that he came across a brown snake devouring a squirrel the other morning, 

 and from his description it could only be Eryx johnii. Personally durino- 

 the two and a half years I have been in this district I have never seen one 

 of these snakes. 



FLORENCE POWELL. 

 Ghazipuk, U. p., IQth July 1914. 



No. XXIX.— EARTH SNAKE ATTACKING A MYNA. 



On the 2nd July I witnessed an attack made by an Earth snake {Eryx 

 conicus) on a Myna [Acridotheres tristis). My attention was attracted to 

 the scene by the clamour raised by several Mynas and other small birds 

 about the roots of a Nim tree {Azadirachta indica), close to my garden gate. 



On approaching the spot I found the matter was somewhat serious. The 

 crowd of birds melted away and disclosed a hapless Myuain the coils of an 

 Earth snake. The snake had coiled itself once round the bird's body and 

 had gripped its breast with its jaws. The wretched Myna uttered feeble 

 squeaks now and again, but the snake remained perfectly immovable, 

 except perhaps for an almost imperceptible tightening of its coil round the 

 body 



1 should have liked to have watched the tragedy to its close, but the 

 cries of the Myna. its acute distress, the mute appeal in its eyes were 

 deciding factors in the case and, I determined to save it, if possible. A blow 

 with my stick was out of the question, as that would have harmed the bird 

 as well as the snake, so I touched the snake gently with the point of my 

 cane on the underjaw. This had the desired effect. The snake let go and 

 rapidly withdrew its head at the same time loosening its coil. The Myna 

 extricated itself in a second and darted off with a cry of relief. The snake 

 showed no signs of fear and made no attempt to esca|)e. 1 killed it with a 

 blow or two of my cane. About one-third of its body was still in the hole 

 from which it had emerged to capture the Myna. From this 1 conclude 

 that the snake made a spring on the Myna from the entrance of its hole. 

 I did not see the actual attack and cannot say whether the bird was first 

 seized in the snake's jaws, but it seems to me that is what must have 



