SNAKES OF CEYLON. 295 



compressed, and the throat is pouched. The tongue is 

 meanwhile kept retracted and invisible, but the opening of 

 the windpipe alternately dilates and contracts. Seen under 

 these conditions, with the head retracted and the forebody 

 thrown into sigmoid curves, the snake presents a most 

 formidable aspect. 



This and its near allies of this genus are the only snakes 

 I know that menace with open jaws. 



(d) Diurnal or Nocturnal: The common whipsnake is 

 completely diurnal, a habit it enjoys by virtue of its colour- 

 ation which harmonizes perfectly with its environment. 



(e) Progression: When seriously disturbed it can move 

 at a wonderful turn of speed over the foliage. Its body is so 

 slender and so light that by distributing its trifling weight on 

 many points it is capable of gaining support from the minutest 

 twigs and twining stems. I have seen its pursuers running 

 along a hedge find some difficulty to keep up with it. On 

 the ground it moves much less speedily and makes off for 

 the nearest tree or bush. 



(/) Hissing : I have never heard this snake hiss, and snake 

 charmers assure me that it does not do so. 



(g) Sloughing : One caged in the Madras Museum cast its 

 skin about once a quarter, the exact dates given me being 

 May 28, August 9, and October 25, 1896. Green remarks of 

 one that he had in captivity that it moulted four or five times 

 during a confinement of about six months. Green's young 

 born in the vivarium were observed to desquamate on the 

 eighth day after birth. Kinnear's cast their skins on the 

 second day after birth. 



I have found and examined the sloughs, but have failed 

 to find any marks indicative of the black and white che- 

 quering of the skin previously remarked upon. 



Food. — Its tastes are very varied. Mice, birds, and lizards 

 are all frequently devoured, and sometimes frogs and other 

 snakes are preyed upon. 



One in captivity in the Madras Museum ate 44 mice and 6 

 green frogs in one year. Millard says in captivity it eats mice, 

 sparrows, geckoes, and the common lizard Calotes versicolor. 



