Field notes, v1306
Page 303
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Greene, H. 1987 20 December crawling very slowly in some broad leaved plants (continued) that arise from a large stump, such that the snake was ≈1.6 m above water. This snake I watched until ≈ 2253 hr, and it crawled continuously over and between leaves. It moved over a leaf w/ head and neck on the leaf, seemingly sweeping and not avoiding contact as in D. cendua - my impression was that it was behaving (with) Leptodeira septentrionalis, and using the extensible neck to bridge gaps but not to search without touching leaves. The tongue was protruded frequently. At 2055 hrs, an L. irianus ≈0.8 m above water in dense leafy tangle (small leaves), crawling slowly (741+283 mm, 37.3 g). Reacted to handling by squirting, cloacal prolapse, and emission of a foul (nauseating) odor. Palped two Hyla elachroa, freshly swallowed head first (these were cf. A. saltatoris) with a number of fresh green, jelly-less eggs (2.1, 2.2g). At 2315 hr I could no longer see the second snake, but found a fourth, ≈½ adult size, ≈30 cm over water among stems of the large aquatic-emergent plants. Squirmed and emitted foul odor when handled, stomach empty. Raining very hard now, and seemingly the harder it falls the harder the frogs sing! 21 December cloudy with hints of sky as I walked to breakfast- and two♂Iguanas iguana already visible although it's overcast. By 0800 hr there is bright sun.