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Show 1899.] REPTILES OF T H E M A L A Y PENINSULA A N D SIAM. 677 scale black-edged. Beneath dull yellow, with vertical black interrupted on the ventral line except under the tail. Hab. Siam, Malay Peninsula. 163. HYPSIRHINA SIEBOLDII (Schleg.). Hypsirhina sieboldii, Blgr. Cat. Snakes, iii. p. 11. Hab. India, Burma, Malay Peninsula. 164. HOMALOPSIS BUCCATA (L.). Homalopsis buccata, Blgr. Cat. Snakes, iii. p. 14 (skull fig.). Siamese. " Ngu-pla " = " fish-snake." Localities. This snake has been recorded from Penang, Malacca, and Singapore (vide P. Z. S. 1896, p. 887). There are specimens from Perak in the Taiping Museum. I obtained two near Alor Star, Kedah, and about twelve specimens in Bangkok. A specimen in the Siamese Museum has two heads, side by side, each about equally perfectly developed. Habits. H. buccata frequents the neighbourhood of water, in which it spends most of its time, and is an expert swimmer ; " it feeds on fishes " (Cantor). When first caught it is very wild, but becomes quite tame in two or three days. I have kept several individuals in captivity, one for 14 months, when it was set at liberty on my leaving Siam. They appeared to have more intelligence than most snakes and appreciated being petted : when I came to the tank in which they were kept they would often of their own accord come to me and climb up my arm and remain round my neck or curled up in a pocket sometimes for hours till replaced in the tank, while they resented being touched by anyone else, which was remarkable, for other snakes that I have kept as pets never objected to being picked up by one anyone (who was used to handling snakes). Their food in captivity was frogs (Rana limnocharis). Colour (in life). Homalopsis buccata is a remarkably pretty snake on account of the richness of its colours and the bold, handsome markings. The following description is of adult specimens from Bangkok:- Above with broad transverse rich chocolate-brown cross-bands narrowly edged with black, separated by narrow pale greyish-brown interspaces; on the anterior part of the body these interspaces are alternately complete and broken up into three parts. An irregular spot on the centre of the back, and an acutely pointed wedge (pointing upward) on each side. Head pale brown, with a V-shaped dark brown mark on the snout, and a A-shaped mark on the top of the head, which on each side sometimes joins a dark brown line which beoins in front of and passes through the eye and continues backward till it joins the first dark transverse band on the neck, which band has a prolongation forward in the vertebral line ; a narrow brown black-edged line which reaches as far as the posterior branches of the A or sometimes enters the angle. Belly pure P B O C ZOOL. Soc-1899, No. XLIV. 44 |