784 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIII. 



tail he introduces a stake sharpened at one end in the form of a crowbar, 

 and levers the lizard out by pressure from beneath. 



After killing the lizard as related before, in order that he may clear the 

 internals, the Indian tears open the body on the underside, near one of its 

 armpits, making an opening large enough to allow him to extract the sto- 

 mach, liver, heart, and entrails, &c. This done, they place them with their 

 backs downward one above the other in a vessel, and pouring in enough 

 water to cover them properly, they boil them well, and then clean the 

 scales and spines off, but do not take off the skin. It is then cut into pieces 

 including the tail, but the four paws and head are rejected. The tail is 

 considered a delicacy. The pieces are then washed and cooked with 

 some clarified butter (ghi) and curry massalas along with any fat that the 

 lizard may have had in it. After this has cooked for sometime, and when 

 nearing completion, some milk made from flour and water is poured in into 

 the vessel and the whole cooked till the grease separates. The wheat flour 

 milk makes a rich gravy in combination with the fat of the lizard. 



The fat found in the body of the lizard is also taken out, and boiled down 

 in a vessel over a fire. The liquid obtained thus is of a bright yellow colour, 

 and does not freeze in an Indian winter. It is used medicinally and 

 fetches a high price with Indian Hakeems who use it as a cure for impot- 

 ence. It is administrated by rubbing on the stomach, spine and thighs or 

 eaten with bread and sugar. It is said to taste nice. On account of its 

 heating properties it is reported to be very effective in Rheumatism, Gout 

 and other similar pains and aches. 



As an instance of the antiquity of the practice of lizard eating, it may 

 be noted that Firdousi mentions it in his Shahnama over 900 years ago. 

 He says : — " The Arabs by drinking the milk of she-camel and eating 

 lizards have made sucii progress that they now aspire to the throne of 

 Persia." 



E. HOME PURVES. 



MoNTGOMEKY, oth December 1914. 



[We are indebted to Mr. V T. Janson for the excellent photograph of this 

 lizard reproduced in the above note. The lizards were sent down ahve by Mr. 

 Home Purves and have been living in the Museum for some months. They are 

 extraordinarily tame and placid and permit themselves to be handled without any 

 objection or attempting to bite. If placed on their backs they will lie sometimes 

 for some minutes with their legs in the air without endeavouring to move. — bds.] 



No. XVII.— NOTES ON SOME SNAKES FROM SIAM. 



T have recently sent specimens of the following snakes to the Society's 

 Museum, and the accompanying notes upon them may be interesting. 



Trirhinopolis nuchalis. — The only previous record of this snake is, 1 

 believe, one specimen in the British Museum, from Toungyi, Southern 

 Shan States. There are also two specimens in the B. N. H. S. Museum 

 from Mansi, U. Burma. They were identified by Lt.-Ool. Wall but have not, 

 as far as I know, been recorded. 



I have recently procured two more specimens. 1'hey were caught in the 

 province of Ratchaburi, some two miles east of the Tenasserim border, in 

 tall evergreen jungle, at an attitude of 770 metres. In lepidosis they 

 agree in every way with Mr. Boulenger's description. (Cat. of Snakes, 

 Vol. I, pac/e 419.) 



