210 SNAKES OF CEYLON 



Colouration. — -Very variable. Dark specimens are uniform 

 dark brown or blackish dorsally. Light specimens are dirty 

 yellowish or ruddy dorsally, and these have several series of 

 small black quincunciate spots. The belly is bright canary 

 yellow, orange, rose, carrot-red or berry-red more or less 

 mottled with black. In some the mottling is fine and sparse, 

 in others heavy and predominating over the ground colour. 

 There is usually a more or less conspicuous black stripe along 

 the side of the tail. The brilliant colouring is seen in both 

 sexes, and from the earliest age to maturity. 



Habits . — (a) Haunts : It spends most of its life beneath the 

 soil. The coolies that brought in specimens in such abundance 

 when I was staying with Mr. Drummond-Hay all dug them 

 up. Some of the boys said they had dug up the soil in their 

 vegetable garden, others had removed the debris from the 

 drains, and others again had captured specimens by turning 

 over stones. The sloughs I found had the head always 

 embedded in the soil. 



( b) Disposition : It is an extremely inoffensive little snake, 

 that never attempts to bite however much provoked. Those 

 seized with forceps merely wriggled to try and effect their 

 freedom. 



Food. — They live exclusively on earthworms. I have 

 opened the stomachs of many, and found almost all held 

 worms, and the intestines were always loaded with semi- 

 liquid mud from their diet. Many that were put into 

 formalin ejected the contents of the stomach, so as to leave a 

 deposit of earthworms at the bottom of the jar. 



Breeding. — (a) The Sexes: Of ninety brought in on 

 February 29 and March 1, 1920, I found 47 were males, and 43 

 females. Most adults grow to much the same size irrespective 

 of sex, but the female shows some slight tendency to outgrow 

 the male. The clasper is a cylindrical organ beset with fine 

 spinous processes. The secretion from the anal glands is 

 pale yellowish. 



( 6) Method of Reproduction : From the size and character 

 of some of the eggs I have examined there is no doubt that it 

 is oviparous. I have however in the most advanced eggs 

 found extremely minute embryos before oviposition. 



