656 ME. STANLET 8. FLOVTBR OX TttB [May 16, 



98. Python cuktus Schleg. 



Python ciirtus, BIgr. Cat. Snakes, i. p. 89, and P. Z. S. 1889, 

 pi. xlv. 



Recorded from Malacca and Singapore. 

 Hab. Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo' 



Family lLTSiiD.i:. 



99. Cyltndeophis eufus (Laur.). (Plate XXXVII. fig. 3.) 



Cylindrophis rufus. Cantor, p. 53 ; Blgr. Cat. Snakes, i. p. 135. 



Siamese. " Ngu-kan-rob," also " ngu-kan-kop." 



Malay. " Ular dua kapala " = two-headed snake. 



This curious burrowing snake is not uncommon. I have seen 

 specimens from Taiping in Perak, Kuala Lumpor in Selangor, 

 Jobore Babru, Singapore, and ten individuals from Bangkok. It 

 is also recorded from Peuaug. The Bangkok specimens had each 

 21 rows of scales. 



Hahits. At ordinary times tliis snake is fairly cylindrical in 

 section, and uses its tail in progression, putting the sharp tip 

 against the ground and pushing its body forward from it ; but it 

 has the power of depressing its body, when its appearance is very 

 singular : the neck and anterior part of the body are but slightly 

 compressed, but posteriorly it is very much so. Conseq uently, when 

 setn from above the outline of the snake is much tbat of a Sea- 

 snake seen from the side. . When touched or worried it will not 

 attempt to strike or bite, but keeps its head flat on the ground, 

 usually hidden under the folds of the body ; its tail, however, it 

 raises off the ground and holds aloft curved over backwards in 

 the most extraordinary manner, so that any casual observer would 

 imagine the tail was the head and think the snake to be threatening 

 to strike. Sometimes the tail is not curved over, but held in the 

 manner most snakes hold their heads when advancing. In captivity 

 Cylindrophis rufus avoids the light and creeps into any dark 

 corner. 



Colour (in life). The following description of a Bangkok 

 specimen with no " orange collar-mark " maybe compared with 

 that of a Singapore specimen (P. Z. S. 1896, p. 877) : — Above 

 intense iridescent black, with three brown cross-bands interrupted 

 in the vertebral line. Below black, with about forty-nine trans- 

 verse pale yellow bands (turning china-white after death). Only 

 those bands about the middle of the body are regularly formed ; 

 most of those on the anterior and posterior parts do not meet 

 along the middle line. A bright vermilion mark on the tail. 

 Inside of mouth bright red. 



Size. The largest Bangkok specimen was 732 mm. in total 

 length, but one from Kuala Lumpor measured 825 mm. 



Hub. Burma, Siam, Cambodia, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, 

 Borneo, Celebes. 



