SNAKES OF OEYLON. 441 



(c) Nocturnal or Diurnal : It is decidedly nocturnal in 

 habit. Nearly all the casualties recorded have occurred at 

 night. Nearly all my specimens have been killed at night. 



(d) SlougTiing : The krait casts its skin probably every 

 month. One in captivity in the Madras Museum, captured 

 on November 7, 1896, sloughed on December 7, 1896, January 

 13 and February 27, 1897. 



Food. — This species, like others of this genus, is in the main 

 ophiophagous in habit, but in a state of nature, as well as in 

 captivity, will partake of most other things offered. I have 

 on many occasions found snakes eaten, once Bungarus walli, 

 and once Lycodon aulicus, and on other occasions TypMops 

 braminus. In every case where young examples had fed 

 Typhlops had been taken. Mr. Millard tells me that " those 

 kept in the Society's Rooms refused all food but snakes." 

 Dr. J. R. Henderson tells me, " I have frequently given a 

 captured specimen a living snake to eat, and in most cases 

 the latter was inside the krait by next morning. On one 

 occasion one disposed of a DryopMs longer than itself." 

 Father Dreckmann writes to me, " their food, as far as I can 

 judge, consists exclusively of other snakes. I have never 

 found anything else in their stomachs, and a very fitne specimen 

 disgorged three other snakes in different stages of digestion 

 during the first night of its captivity." There are many 

 other records where other snakes have been devoured. On 

 the other hand, I have twice known frogs eaten, and Fayrer 

 records a similar experience. In the Administration Report 

 of the Madras Museum, 1896 to 1897, one specimen is reported 

 to have eaten 2 frogs, and another 18 frogs during incarcer- 

 ation. I have twice found toads {Bufo andersoni) in the 

 stomach, and once a monitor lizard (Varanus flavescens). 

 Small mammals, too, are occasionally devoured. I once 

 found a muskrat {Orocidura cseruleus) in gastro, and Assistant 

 Surgeon Robertson told me he found five young muskrats 

 taken on one occasion. I have twice seen a brood of young 

 mice which had been swallowed,- and in Bannerman's escaped 

 specimen from the Parel Laboratory, when ultimately 

 recovered, the meal' consisted of six newly born rats. Lieut.- 

 Colonel Liston, I.M.S., tells me that at Parel they have found 



