IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



having got through the bars of a pigstye, swallowed the pig and could 

 no longer get out. The Malays assert that the biggest of these 

 snakes are capable of swallowing a deer, after having well reduced 

 it in size by crushing it in their coils, and lubricated it with abundant 

 saliva. The horns may for some days remain projecting from the 

 mouth of the serpent, but even these eventually manage to pass. 

 Pythons of ordinary dimensions are very plentiful in Sarawak, and 

 account for many domestic fowls and their eggs ; in this, however, 

 they have a competitor in the " biawak," a big lizard (Monitor 

 bivittatus), which is very common, and often exceeds a yard in 

 length. On one occasion whilst at Singapore I saw the remains of 

 a gigantic python : a Chinaman passed by the verandah where I was, 

 carrying in two big baskets the transverse sections of the animal's 

 body, some of them quite equal in diameter to a man's thigh. The 

 Tuan Muda spoke of a python which he caught, measuring just 19 

 feet in length, which had a monkey in its stomach ; and St. John 

 mentions another killed at Bruni, which was over twenty-nine 

 feet (8 metres, 91 centim.) long. The Malays talk of specimens 

 7 " depa" 1 in length, which would be about 38 ft. 6 in., but I do not 

 believe that in Sarawak well-authenticated cases of pythons exceed- 

 ing 20 feet have ever been recorded. 



Amongst the snakes I often kept alive I may mention the " ular 

 bunga," or flower-snake (Tragops prasinus), a long, slender, elegant 

 creature of a brilliant green, which is said to be tameable. Another 

 species which was common in the meadows around our residence 

 was Dendrophis prasinus, which is rarely more than three feet in 

 length and as thick as one's finger. It frequents swampy places and 

 feeds on frogs, which it catches by fascinating them. I once wit- 

 nessed an instance of this myself. Being on our verandah one day, 

 I was attracted by a persistent and strange croaking emitted by 

 some frogs in a small streamlet a few paces from where I stood. I 

 went to see what was the cause, and found a frog, of a species common 

 around Kuching, which was uttering most lamentable sounds. 

 Hardly a hand's breadth from it was a snake with erected head, 

 staring at it and quite motionless. The frog was also quite still, 

 poised upright on its hind legs, the front legs being extended, and 

 with one jump it might have escaped, but it remained as if hypnotised, 

 and fell an immediate prey to its enemy. But I avenged the poor 

 victim immediately after, killing the snake with a smart blow from 

 a thin stick across its back. This is an excellent method of captur- 

 ing small snakes without danger, and without spoiling them as speci- 

 mens. I found that a shot in the head with a small charge of dust- 

 shot was the best way of dealing with large snakes. 



Some of the Bornean reptiles produce singular sounds. The com- 



1 A " depa " is about 5 ft. 6 in., and is the distance between the tips of 

 the fingers, holding the arms extended. 



34 



