296 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



Green says that young in his vivarium readiJy fed on lizards of 

 the families Geckonidse, Agamidse, and Scincidx. He offered 

 them grasshoppers, but never observed one taken. I have 

 several records of birds being eaten, and there can be no doubt 

 the whipsnake must be a frequent source of alarm to parent 

 birds with a family to rear. I have only one record of a 

 frog being taken in a state of nature, viz., a Rana tigrina, 

 and it is perhaps singular that there is no record of arboreal 

 frogs being eaten. Primrose recorded one swallowing a 

 snake, viz., the buff-striped keelback (Amphiesma stolata), 

 and I have known the snake Rhinophis sanguineus taken once. 

 Mr. Kinlock has recorded one eating one of the Silyburidx, 

 and the Rev. J. F. Caius says that in captivity it frequently 

 eats snakes, and mentions Helicops schistosus, Nerodia 

 piscator, A. platyceps, and Polyodontophis collaris, among 

 others. Green says : " Its manner of capturing its prey is 

 invariable. When a lizard is introduced into the cage the snake 

 slowly frees the forepart of its body and coils itself in zig-zag 

 fashion. Then, suddenly darting forward, it seizes the victim 

 unerringly just behind the head, drags it from its support, and 

 keeps it dangling, without shifting its hold, but gradually 

 tightening its grip, until the lizard is suffocated. This process 

 takes perhaps 20 minutes in the case of a Calotes. The snake 

 never commences to swallow its prey until all signs of life 

 have ceased." I have known one take 36 minutes to seize 

 and swallow a frog. When first seized the frog by its exertions 

 turned the snake over and over, but, in spite of this rough 

 treatment, the snake maintained its grasp . The frog continued 

 to kick convulsively after the grasp had been transferred to 

 its head, and until it had been completely engulfed. 



Father Bertram, S.J., in a little pamphlet written for private 

 circulation, says : " It does not even always wait for its 

 prey to be paralyzed before eating it." I find, as in the 

 instance narrated above, the victim is often by no means dead 

 when swallowed, but is always held tenaciously until its 

 struggles are of little avail. When the victim has passed 

 through the jaws, the snake rears the anterior half of the body, 

 and then practises a series of contortions, during which the 

 body is thrown into shallow lateral undulations. The curves 



