130 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



(e) Sloughing : Mr. D'Abreu tells me that one in captivity 

 at Nagpur sloughed five times during four months, and 

 another three times in the same period. 



(/) Progression : It is an active snake that can move quite 

 expeditiously if so inclined. 



(g) Estivation : The green keelback appears to disappear 

 during the drought, and like frogs and some other snakes, 

 notably Nerodia piscator and Amphiesma stolata, suddenly 

 appears with the advent of the rains. 



Food. — Its staple food consists of the common Indian toad, 

 Bufo melanostictus. A large number of the 106 specimens 

 collected for me in the Nilgiri Hills in 1917 had recently fed, 

 and almost invariably this toad had furnished the meal. 

 I have noted the partiality to this diet also in Bangalore 

 specimens. In many cases the snake is enormously distended. 

 A specimen sent to me measuring 3 inches in girth was dis- 

 tended to 5J inches, and the head of the ingested toad was 

 fully twice the transverse diameter of the snake. 



I have known frogs taken on three occasions, always 

 varieties of Ixalus. Fletcher mentions a captive specimen 

 in Ceylon eating three frogs, and at another time 

 a lizard of the Genus Calotes. Mr. Gray told me he once 

 knew one eat a snake. 



Breeding. — (a) The Sexes: Of 39 sexed by me in the Nilgiris, 

 26 were males and 13 females. Females appear to attain 

 a greater length than males. 



(b) Method of Reproduction : Eggs are produced. 



(c) Season : This evidently covers a considerable part of 

 the year. A specimen I had in captivity at Bangalore that 

 died on February 16 had ovarian follicles obviously fertilized. 

 Abercromby mentions having had egg-bound females in 

 Ceylon in May and the beginning of June. 



Mr. D'Abreu tells me that one in captivity at Nagpur 

 deposited six eggs on March 18 and a seventh on April 1. 

 Another specimen laid three eggs on March 20, and thirteen 

 more on the following day. 



Miss Montgomery wrote to me of a brood, evidently just 

 hatched, that was found in a disused water vessel at Broach 

 at the end of March or beginning of April. 



