OCR Text |
Show 1899.] REPTILES OF THE M A L A Y PENINSULA AND SIAM. 669 (several local specimens in the Kuala Lumpor Museum), and in Singapore (Dr. Dennys, Mr. Ridley, Dr. Hanitsch, and myself). Hab. South China, Burma, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Nias, Java, Borneo. 137. COLUBER RADIATUS Schleg. Coluber radiatus Blgr. Cat. Snakes, ii. p. 61. Localities. Pound in Penang (Cantor and others), Province Wellesley (two specimens in Mr. van Sommeren's collection), Perak (several specimens from Taiping and Kuala Kangsa, in the Taiping Museum), and Singapore (Cantor and Hanitsch). It does not seem to have been previously recorded from Siam, where I obtained four specimens from Bangkok and one from Ayuthia. Habits. Like most species of Coluber, this is a fierce snake and will bite one vigorously; the neck is apparently dilatable. Colour (in life). Above yellowish brown, with three black lines along each side of the anterior part of the body : these may be more or less broken up into a series of elongated spots ; usually the upper line is broad and conspicuous, and the lowest narrow and indistinct; a well-marked black line across the occiput; three black lines radiating from the eye. Lower parts uniform yellow, or lemon-yellow anteriorly and yellow with pink shades posteriorly (after death, in specimens placed in spirits, dark purplish speckles mav appear). In young specimens the anterior half of the body may be indistinctly reticulated with white. Iris bright golden (" bright gamboge, with a concentric black ring "-Cantor). Size. The largest Bangkok specimen was 1696 mm. in total length. Hab. Eastern Himalayas, Bengal, Assam, Burma, South China, Cochinchina, Siam, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java. 138. GONYOPHIS MARGARITATUS (Peters). Gonyosoma margaritatum, Peters, Mon. Berk Ac. 1871, p. 578 Gonyophis margaritatus, Blgr. Cat. Snakes, ii. p. 71. Hab. Malay Peninsula (Singapore, Blgr. A. M . N. H. (6) viii. 1891, p. 290), Borneo. 139. DENDROPHIS PICTUS (Gmel.). Leptophis pictus, Cantor, p. 82. Dendrophis pictus, Blgr. Cat. Snakes, ii. p. 78. Localities. The Painted Tree-Snake is by no means rare; it has been found in Penang (Cantor), on Penang Hill at 2000 feet (S. S. E.),at Alor Star and at Kulim, Kedah (S. S. P.), at Taiping, Perak (S. S. E.), at Kuala Lumpor, Selangor (Hanitsch, Rep. Raffles Libr. & Mus. 1897, p. 10), at Tanglin, Singapore (S. S. E.),' in Siam (Siamese Museum), in the Laos Mountains (Mouhot), and in Cambodia (Mouhot). Habits. In the stomach of one I found a frog, Rana macrodactyla which indicates that this snake is not entirely arboreal as |