1899.] REPTILES OF THE MALAY PENINSULA AND SIAM. 677 



scale black-edged. Beneath dull yeJlow, with vertical black bars 

 interrupted on the ventral line except under the tail. 

 Hah. Siam, Malay Peninsula. 



163. Htpsikhina sieboldii (Schleg.). 

 Hypsirhina sieboldii, Blgr. Cat. Snakes, iii. p. 11. 

 Hah. India, Burma, Malay Peninsula. 



164. HOMALOPSIS BUCCATA (L.). 



Homalojysis buccata, Blgr. Cat. Snakes, iii. p. 14 (skull fig.). 



Siamese. " Ngu-pla "=" fish-snake." 



Localities. This snake has been recorded from Penang, Malacca, 

 and Singapore (vide P. Z. S. 1896, p. 887). There are specimens 

 from Perak in the Taiping Museum. I obtained two near Alor 

 Star, Kedah, and about twelve specimens in Bangkok. A specimen 

 in the Siamese Museum has two heads, side by side, each about 

 equally perfectly developed. 



Habits.' H. buccata frequents the neighbourhood of water, in 

 which it spends most of its time, and is an expert swimmer ; " it 

 feeds on fishes " (Cantor). When fii-st caught it is very wild, 

 but becomes quite tame in two or three days. I have kept several 

 individuals in captivity, one for 14 months, when it was set at 

 liberty on my leaving Siam. They appeared to have more intelli- 

 gence than most snakes and appreciated being petted : when I 

 came to the tank in which they were kept they would often of 

 their own accord come to me and climb up my arm and remain 

 round my neck or curled up in a pocket sometimes for hours till 

 replaced in the tauk, while they resented being touched by anyone 

 else, which was remarkable, for other snakes that I have kept as 

 pets never objected to being picked up by one anyone (who was 

 used to handhng snakes). Their food in captivity was frogs 

 {Rana limnocharis). 



Colour (in life). Homalojjsis buccata is a remarkably pretty 

 snake on account of the richness of its colours and the bold, hand- 

 some markings. The following description is of adult specimens 

 from Bangkok : — 



Above with broad transverse rich chocolate-brown cross-bands 

 narrowly edged with black, separated by narrow pale greyish-brovra 

 interspaces ; on the anterior part of the body these interspaces are 

 alternately complete and broken up into three parts. An irregular 

 spot on the centre of the back, and an acutely pointed wedge 

 (pointing upward) on each side. Head pale brown, with a V-shaped 

 dark brown mark on the snout, and a A-shaped mark on the top of 

 the head, which on each side sometimes joins^ dark brown line which 

 begins in front of and passes through the eye and continues back- 

 ward till it joins the first dark transverse band on the neck, which 

 band has a prolongation forward in the vertebral line ; a narrow 

 brown black-edged line which reaches as far as the posterior 

 branches of the A or sometimes enters the angle. Belly pure 



Pboc. Zool. Soc— 1899, No. XLIV. 44 



