1894.] OPHIDIA OF TRIXIDAD, B. W. I. 509 



Cribos are therefore invaluable to the cocoa and sugar planters, who 

 are always much troubled with rats. Cribos, however, are not 

 averse to young chicken, which they devour in the boldest fashion, 

 in spite of the noisy but impotent demonstrations of their mother. 

 The Cribo moves in bold, graceful, rapid, and continuous curves, 

 and the worst that is said of him by the people of the island is that 

 he is a terror to chicken — otherwise he bears a good character. 

 They are said to be susceptible of kindness, and will even live in 

 the houses of the peasantry if unmolested, when they amply repay 

 this toleration by the relentless war they wage on rats and mice. 

 A Cribo once in our possession struck at a mouse and caught his 

 own tail ; this he diligently swallowed, until at least one-fourth 

 of his entire length disappeared down his own throat. In this 

 position he looked like the numeral eight (8). After some 

 minutes' consideration he disgorged. These snakes frequently 

 devour then 1 own and other species, and the country people credit 

 them with killing the formidable Crotalines Lachesis muta and 

 BothrOj)S atrox. 



SPILOTES TAPIA.BILIS. 



This snake, which is sometimes entirely black, has, as a rule, 

 pale yellow stripes and spots upon the first third of its length, 

 the remaining portions and the tail being of a shining jet-black ; 

 underneath and as far back as where the black begins it is pale 

 yellow, the ventral scales being edged with black. It is more 

 slender in appearance than Cohiber corals. Its scales are large and 

 of a pointed oval form and are slightly keeled. Its teeth are small 

 and it makes a great show of fighting, inflating its neck to treble 

 its ordinary thickness, but, though darting its head at the offender, 

 it seldom bites. Its length is usually 8 or 9 feet, and we 

 have heard of specimens measuring 11. One we had laid 

 nine eggs. They are with difficulty kept in captivity. They feed 

 on frogs and birds ; and the following incident related to us by 

 Mr. A. B. Carr of Capard shows they have some claim to be called 

 rat-snakes, though perhaps not such a strong one as the C. corals. 

 One Sunday afternoon, as he was lying in his hammock in a house 

 on a plantation he has formed on the verge of the primeval forest, 

 he saw a Tigre (local name for 8. variabilis) come out of the long 

 grass a little way off, cross the pathway, aud make for the house. 

 It ascended one of the supports of the roof of the verandah in 

 which he was taking his siesta and disappeared in the palm-leaf 

 thatch. It had not been there long before sundry squeals and 

 rustlings betrayed the fact that the Tigre had good reasons for its 

 visit. The snake had caught and was swallowing a rat. It then 

 descended and made off by the way it had come. The Tigre is very 

 rapid in its movements when alarmed, and is frequently to be seen 

 in cocoa estates in the higher branches of the trees. Like Scytale 

 coronation and Coluber boddaerti, it vibrates its tail when alarmed 

 very quickly, making a noise amongst leaves like that produced by 

 the rattle of C'rotalus horridus. The Tigre's back is strongly ridged. 



