SNAKES OF CEYLON. 509 



This done the snake was unhanded and irritated. It was 

 then noticed that the lung expanded with difficulty, and very 

 imperfectly, and hissing was no longer feasible. 



(g) Sloughing : One caged in the Madras Museum des- 

 quamated on June 16, July 31, October 6, and December 27. 

 Mr. D'Abreu tells me that one confined in the Nagpur Museum 

 for 167 days only cast its skin once. Another in the same 

 institution captured on September 7 exfoliated on September 

 10, on March 20, and June 28 of the following year. For 

 some days before the period of ecdysis the snake is purblind, 

 and, as a result, many specimens are killed or captured while 

 so handicapped. 



Food. — All my observations go to show that small mammals, 

 and especially rats, constitute the main diet of the daboia, 

 but it is not so bigoted in gastronomic matters as to be dis- 

 dainful of other fare. Mr. E. E. Green found one that had 

 eaten a green lizard (Calotes ophiomachus) as well as a rat. In 

 captivity, Mr. Spence tells me, the specimens caged in Bombay 

 feed better than any other species. One in the Madras 

 Museum ate 5 squirrels and 27 rats in 1896. Another young 

 specimen ate 5 squirrels, 2 rats, 67 mice, and 4 frogs during its 

 captivity the same year. Mr. D'Abreu tells me a caged 

 specimen at Nagpur ate rats, squirrels, mice, shrews, kittens, 

 small birds, such as sparrows, owlets, and swifts, and also 

 sometimes bloodsucker lizards (i.e. Calotes) and frogs. 

 Some specimens do not feed well in captivity. Dr. Davy 

 had one in captivity for 146 days that refused all food, and 

 Fayrer had one that neither ate nor drank for a whole year, 

 but still retained its vigour and poisonous activities. I know 

 of no snake-eating tendencies in adults, but cannibalism seems 

 a common offence among the young. Major Dawson writes 

 to me that on one occasion when young daboias were born in 

 the gardens at Trevandrum, " the young commenced to 

 devour each other," and on another occasion in the same place 

 " one of the young swallowed one of its fellows, and in about 

 a quarter of an hour disgorged it," and both, at the time of 

 writing, were alive and well. Father Dreckmann, too, told 

 me of a similar experience among a brood in captivity ; he 

 says " when I inspected the young family one morning, I found 



