EAST AFRICAN SNAKES. . 885 



"Between 5.30 p.m. and sundown I saw a Stripe-bellied Sand 

 Snake lying in tiie roadway; three times I distur'oed it and it 

 returned ench time. I noticed tliat a number of the Small 

 "Weavers {Lagonosticta sp.)were picking up grass seeds and hopping 

 about unconcernedly close to it. 1 think one might assume that 

 tJie snake was lying there with the object of securing a bird." 



1 have already mentioned under B. Imeatus how one of tliis 

 species was found swallowing a young House Snake at Tabora. 



Their commonest food, however, is the striped skink, and this 

 they very soon dispose of, as the following timing will sliow : 



12.44.50. Snake seized skink. 



12.47.10. Head of skink was in throat. 



12.48. Hind-legs enveloped. 



12.48.10. Tail disappears. 



There is usually a pause for rest after the body has passed into 

 the gullet, nnd the tail of the meal sticks out of the snake's mouth 

 as if it had been having an after-dinner cii-ar! 



At Frere Town (1. vii. 19) my attention was drawn to one of 

 these snakes which appeared to be playing. When first seen it 

 was stretched out at full length excepting that its head was 

 turned round in the direction of its tail. It then jmssed its head 

 ])eneath its body, then over the back, then beneath tlie body 

 again, and so on, traversing its own length towards the taiL 

 This was not done hurriedly, but in dallying fashion, with 

 occasional withdiawing of the head. Unfortunately, a native 

 running up at this moment disturbed it, so that I was unable to 

 see the end of the performance. 



At Kilosa a captive specimen was seen to rub first one side of 

 its mouth against its side, then the other side of the mouth 

 against the opposite side, repeating the operation a score of times 

 as it slowly worked along its own length to the tail. I feel sure 

 this caressing movement was only play. Having reached the tail 

 it moved slowly away in tlie grass (Kilosa, 2. v. 23). This snake, 

 nearly 3 feet in length, was killed and three-quarters eaten by a 

 baby lemur {Gcdago panganiensis) occupying the same large roomy 

 cage (Kilosa, 4. v. 23j. 



At Lumbo camp I often wondered what chance a snake would 

 have of being in the camp without my being informed by one of 

 the hundreds of natives employed about the place. With the 

 object of deciding this I released a Stripe-bellied Sand Snake 

 near my tent. This tent was situated beneath a mango and a 

 coco-nut palm, but had a cleared space of fifty yards of sand on 

 three sides of it, on the fourth side were several buildings. The 

 snake was caught by me on a railway embankment half-a-mile 

 away, escaped, and was recaught by the reed fence enclosing the 

 tent. Next day I liberated it at 6 a.m. At 8.30 a native came 

 running to say a snake was in his tent, which lay a little more 

 than fifty yards to the west of mine, and was the first cover in 

 that direction after crossing the open sand. I recaptured it and 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1923, No. LVIII. 58 



