886 MR. A. LOVERIDQE : NOTES ON 



a week Later released it at 11 a.m. At 1.30 p.m. a European 

 corporal hurried up requesting me to catch a snake wliich was 

 lander his bed ; the marquee in which he slept was due north 

 from my tent. A week later I again released it at G a.m. and 

 at 8.45 a.m. found a man ti-ying to head it oft* from entering a 

 patient's marquee, almost due south from my tent and the first 

 cover in that direction. It had now tried in three difterent 

 directions, which was rather I'emarkable, and had been appre- 

 hended at the first tent in the direction taken. Twice more 1 

 liberated it, the last time at 10 p.m., to give it a night's start, and 

 I saw its tail disappear beneath my bed. As I heard nothing 

 more of it for a fortnight I thought it had at last won clear of 

 the Civmp, but on Oct. 10 it was found at noon in the tent of 

 some A.N.M.C bo3's, one of whom struck at it with a stick, so 

 injuring it that 1 killed it and threw it into a case of Lesser 

 Mungoose (Jlelor/ale ivorii Thos.), one of Avliich seized it, first 

 crunched its head, and then swallowed it whole. This snako had 

 a portion of its tail missing, so it was unmistakable. I (loncludod 

 from the rcsr.lts of this little experiment th.'\,t I made a pretty 

 exhaustive snake survey of the area, covered by the camp when I 

 collected sixteen species in it during five months. 



Many kinds of worms were found in the stomachs of varibiis 

 specimens, including two new species in a Mombtsa snake, viz., 

 Oochoristica crassiceps Ba)dis, aiid Ophidascaris momhassica Baylis. 

 Physuloptera affiiiis Gedoelst, from a Kilosa specimen. Physalo- 

 ptera sp. and Ascaris sp. from Mombasa specimens. 1 am of the 

 ojiinion that these worms may cause the death of the host, for 

 in two instances the snake turned over and over and died. In 

 the case of the IVtombasa snake the feet and claws of the Prinia 

 it had eaten just a month before were still in its stomach. 



PsAMMorTiLS siniLANS Linn. 



Blgr. Oat. Snakes, iii. 1896, p. 161. 



Nine specimens from Chanzuru, Kilosa, Wembere, and Lumbo 



Largest male 58§^ inches (1120 + 362) and hirgest female 

 r)9| inches (1100 + 404), but the tail tip is missing. The tail is 

 proportionately longer in the females of this species. Both these 

 records are of Morogoro specimens, being the best of seventeen 

 specimens collected 1917-18. 



This snake feeds upon both mammals and reptiles, a very 

 large mouse being tnken from the stomach of one snake and 

 several records of geckos (//. mahouia) being taken by them. 



The eagle in whose gullet a full-grown specimen was found 

 has since been identified as the Black-breasted Harrier Eagle 

 (Circaetus jyectoi'cdis Smith). I have since taken a younger snake 

 in the stomach of another species of hawk. 



At Lumbo (19.viii.l8) some natives killed a fine Oobrii 

 (iY. nigricollis) in the act of swallowing a large Hissing Sand 

 Snake. The cobra measured 50| inches and had already swallowed 



