THE SNAKE-EATING HAMADRYAD. 105 



he called it " Ular tudong-itam-keehil. " The rnaudore states 

 that he remembers seeing- a snake something 1 like this about 

 six feet long, also hooded but black in color, shot by my father 

 about twenty years age; but thinks that was only a very large 

 and old cobra. ' He says he has heard that formerly these 

 hamadryads were not so rare as they are now, but they were 

 always hard to get a sight of, as when men came across them 

 they always smashed them up with their sticks, or whatever 

 weapons they might have with them. He had also heard of 

 deaths resulting from their bites. As I said before, I saw, in 

 company with my mother and father, this snake alive, and my 

 mother hearing the noise made by the natives, ran out of the 

 house about 2 p. m. and saw the snake being noosed prior to 

 being put in the bottle. Whilst in the bottle its ferocity re- 

 mained unabated, and the sight of a finger or stick was enough 

 to make it bite viciously at the object/' 



The reference to the similar snake, black in colour, may point 

 to the existence of what is known as the dusk}' variety of the 

 hamadryad in Singapore. I can only say that in such a case 

 it will be extremely interesting to meet with a specimen, though 

 its greater resemblance to the ordinary cobra deprives it of the 

 claim to attention made by the variety under notice, which 

 might be mistaken by the uninitiated for a harmless serpent — a 

 proof of which is afforded by the fact that our best known local 

 sportsman has himself twice seen the reptile without being aware 

 of its deadly qualities. 



N. B. DENNY 3. 



