198 THE HABITS OF MALAY REPTILES. 
Chersydrus granulatus Schn. is a short thick blunt-nosed 
snake, alternately banded with dirty brown and white. It seems 
to be rare here, only two specimens being recorded -from the 
peninsula, in Flower’s list. One was recently brought to me 
which had been found in the road near the gardens, As it is an 
aquatic snake which lives on fish, it is probable that it was attempt- 
ing to cross from some ditch which had dried up fromthe very 
hot weather, in order to find another wet spot. 
There are many very pretty harmless tree-snakes, slender 
long-tailed reptiles, often gaily coloured. They usually creep 
about in bushes at no great height from the ground, moving 
very briskly when disturbed. Such are the snakes of the genera 
Dendrophis, Dendrelaphis and Dryophis. 
Dendreluphis caudolineatus 18 @ very common kind, brown 
with a bright yellow band down its side. It seems more or less 
cregarious, aS I have seen three in one bush. When annoyed 
I have noticed it emits an appalling odour of carrion. 
The little snakes of the genera Adb/abes and Simotes, though 
allied to Dendrelaphis, are generally to be met with creeping on 
the ground, or concealed beneath logs or stones.- They never 
seem to climb into trees, and being terrestrial are usually dull 
brown, sometimes marked withred. Simotes purpurascens, which 
I got from the Bukit Timah road, was dark brown with large 
distant red spots and a bright red belly. SS. signatus I found 
under a pile of tilesin the garden. It was also dall brown. 
S. octolineatus, which is perhaps the commonest kind, is a bigger 
and gayer-coloured animal, brown or yellow with eight black 
lines running its whole length, a red bar down its back and a 
red belly. 
A very interesting and common snake is Aacropisthodon 
rhodomelas, a slender terracotta red snake, usually about a foot 
long, with a curious bluish triangle on its neck in a black V, and 
a black line down its back. Itis often to be seen gliding through 
the grass or across paths in the day time. Its peculiarity is its 
means of defence. When vexed, it sits up after the manner of 
a cobra, and seems to flatten out its neck as if it was trying to 
imitate that species, while from the bluish patch on its neck are 
exuded some drops of a white viscid liquid representing the 
well-known cobra marks. I noticed that my dog, seizing this 
