The Anatomy of Coluber radiatus and Coluber melanurus 
R. A. M. Bergman 1 
Coluber radiatus is a well-known snake in Java. 
However, we found only 43 of these in a total 
of nearly 6,000 snakes collected over a num- 
ber of years before and after World War II in 
the north coast of Java. Looking at the small 
number of Coluber radiatus in our catches, one 
may get the impression that it may be much 
less common than was generally thought. 
The name radiatus is explained by Schlegel 
(1837: 135) as referring to the very typical 
black stripes on the head and on the sides 
of the body: 
L’occiput est marque dune raie transversale 
noire et un peu en croissant, a laquelle se joig- 
nent de chaque cote une raie plus etroite pro- 
venant de loeil: deux autres, naissant egale- 
ment sur les bords de cet organe descendent sur 
les levres. Le dos est orne de deux larges raies 
noires longitud inales; une autre plus etroite 
regne le long des flancs 
The popular name in Java is "ular tikus,” 
meaning the snake (that hunts the) rats, and 
it is a very apt name, as this snake is indeed a 
predator on rats and mice and as such is a very 
useful animal. It is incredibly swift in its move- 
ments: we had a C. radiatus in a rather small 
cage, about 100 cm. long and 80 cm. wide and 
deep, and a rat was put into it. For the first 
minutes nothing happened, but all of a sudden 
the snake moved and, in a matter of a few 
seconds, it caught the rat in a coil, crushing it 
to death. The whole attack happened so quickly 
that it was difficult to follow the series of move- 
ments involved. This snake is not poisonous and 
is in no way harmful to man, but it is aggressive, 
it strikes and bites easily. Sometimes it takes a 
remarkable attitude more of defense than of at- 
tack, as is described by van Heurn ( 1929 ) , who 
gives the following details: the first third of 
the body is bent in a U that points laterally, the 
1 Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam. Manuscript 
received June 8, 1959- 
head is directed forward towards the enemy, 
the mouth is wide open. The neck is compressed 
laterally, contrary to the manner of cobras. The 
author illustrates his article with a clear draw- 
ing. 
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our material con- 
sists of 43 snakes, 28 from Surabaia (8 females, 
20 males), and 15 from Djakarta (5 females, 
9 males, one new-born animal that has not been 
sexed). Kopstein (1941) measured the length 
of the body and that of the tail in 15 females 
and 16 males. In our series we took each animal 
that was offered, without attempting a selection. 
The snakes were killed by occipital puncture, 
weighed, perfused through the aorta with saline 
followed by Bouins liquid for hardening, and 
then the distances from the snout to the top 
and to the end of each organ were measured. 
For statistical analysis the work of Simpson 
and Roe (1939) has been followed. 
PATHOLOGY: Infestation with round worms 
was fairly common. Two males (body length r 
1249 and 1252 mm.) were wounded, the first 
one at about one-third of its length behind the j 
head, the other one close behind the head. 
BLOOD: The blood of a female (body length 
1156 mm.) was analysed in the laboratory of 
Prof. Radsma. The following results were ob- 
tained: Na 509, K 18.8, Ca 17.2, where the 
figures represent the number of mgs. per 100 
ml. of plasma. 
SIZE: The maximum lengths observed by 
various authors are summarized, together with 
our data, in Table 1. 
In our material combined with the data gath- 
ered by Kopstein, the female group includes six 
very young animals, hardly more than new-born 
ones, as against a single very small one in the 
male group. To make both groups more com- 
parable, the five shortest females are not in- 
cluded in the data used for Figure 1. 
For our reasoning it does not make much 
difference whether we include them or leave 
144 
