SNAKES OF CEYLON, 225 



terms: "The movements of this snake are rapid, and from 

 its power of springing it is called flying snake." The snake 

 alluded to is no doubt the bronze-backed tree snake or 

 Chrysopelea ornata, and not the green whipsnake (DryopMs 

 mycterizans), to which the n^me " ehetulla " properly belongs. 

 Natives are very inexact in their use of names, and frequently 

 apply them wrongly. Dr. J. R. Henderson, writing to me 

 in answer to my queries, said that in Southern India " there 

 is a common belief that D. picius (by which he means D. 

 tristis) can jump, but I have never seen it do so." 



(/) Sloughing : Some excellent notes on this little studied 

 function were made in the Madras Museum some years ago.* 

 During the official year 1896 one shed its skin on April 2, 

 May 6, June 28, July.27,and October 29. Another on May 13, 

 June 16, July 21, and October 17. In a third instance, 

 a specimen which was acquired on August 12, sloughed 

 on October 24. Now, it is Very curious, and apparently 

 something beyond coincidence, that in all three cases there 

 Was no desquamation in the months of August and September, 

 though, in the first two cases, there had been a regular ecdysis 

 in several preceding months. 



Food. — This tree snake appears to me to subsist under 

 natural conditions, chiefly on lizards, but does not disdain 

 other reptilian fare. Mr. E. E. Green tells me that in capti- 

 vity " it feeds readily upon small lizards (Agamidx, GecJcon- 

 idee, and Scincidx)." He saw one once take and eat a gecko, 

 which it swallowed immediately alive. He also once en- 

 countered one eating a full-grown " blood-sucker " lizard f 

 (Galotes versicolor), and tells me further that young examples 

 are said to feed on grasshoppers. Ferguson quotes Mr. 

 Ingleby as saying that it is very keen after frogs, and parti- 

 cularly tree frogs. Mr. C. Beadon tells me that he once 

 found one eating a blind snake (Typhlops sp.), which returned 

 to its kill after having been disturbed. On occasion it will 

 attack and plunder birds' nests. I once witnessed an en- 

 counter between this snake and a pair of black-backed robins 

 {Thamnobia fulicata) in the Borella Cemetery in Colombo. 



* Administration Beport, Madras Govt. Mus., 1896-97. 

 t Spol. Zeylanioa, April, 1906, page 220. 

 34 6(6)20 



