328 
NOTES ON SNAKES IN EAST AFRICA 
the prey, when it is swallowed in a half-dead condition. The 
writer has been bitten by this species without any unpleasant 
effects. 
On October 20 two geckos ( Hemidactylus ) were chasing 
each other about the roof of a grass hut ; the pursuer was 
pale grey, the pursued brown-black ; before the pursued quite 
realised it, the writer had seized and popped him into the 
Underlined Sand Snake’s case. To see the snake chase it 
was very interesting ; being midday and the weather hot, 
the snake streaked and doubled about the case, and the gecko 
dropped its tail ; the snake undeceived by the wriggling of 
this red herring shortly afterwards seized and chewed the 
gecko as they usually do ; the gecko became very limp, was 
worked round in its mouth, and swallowed head first. 
On September 23 10 eggs were found in a 45-inch female. 
„ October 22 8 „ „ 39 „ 
>> >) 22 7 „ „ 27 ,, 
„ „ 22 6 „ „ 28 
From this it may be safely assumed that the number of eggs 
produced varies in direct ratio with the size of the parent. On 
the same date, October 23, another snake laid six eggs measuring 
1J inches by 7 inches, and on December 16 and January 1 
sixteen newly hatched young ones were taken. 
The Hissing Sand Snake (P. sibilans), seen at Voi and 
Bissel and common at Morogoro, is an olive-green, brown or 
straw-coloured reptile ; underneath it is dirty white or yellow. 
The largest specimen taken locally by the writer measured 
over five feet. 
They feed readily in captivity, so eagerly in fact that they 
will take their food practically from one’s fingers. The writer 
has watched one kill and swallow three striped skinks in rapid 
succession. On another occasion one of these snakes, having 
ineffectually struck at a skink several times, seized the lizard 
in its coil with the head downwards. After failing to find the 
head it bit savagely at the base of the tail ; finally, loosening 
the top coil, it bit the skink in the abdominal region, and as 
soon as it became limp proceeded to swallow it in the usual 
manner. 
