Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/145

 he called it "Ular tudong-itam-kechil." The mandore states that he remembers seeing a snake something 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 remained 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 dusky 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. DENNYS.