Snakes

[Dean Anderson]

As I mentioned in my private email, it may also be a snake that prefers
to eat chicken EGGS. That's the presumed origin of the Western US
'Chicken Snake' although some scholars say that they actually eat the
rodents in the hen house and not the eggs.  It's not that they eat
chickens; they eat their eggs but they kill the chickens if they get
attacked. And you have to be careful when you go to your hen roost to
make sure there aren't any chicken snakes in there. So they are closely
associated with chickens. It's interesting that the definition below
says they are also in Asia although since its nonpoisonous it does not
seem to be your culprit so it may be another type of egg-loving snake.

Encarta definition: rat snake: rodent-eating snake: a large nonvenomous
snake of North America and Asia that eats rodents. Genera ElaphePtyas.
Also called  chicken snake

Also the black rat snake, aka elaphe obsoleta obsoleta


>I suppose the best way

>forward now is for me to call London Zoo and ask them which

>Indian snake either looks like a chicken or specializes in

>eating them.


Do you have any native Tibetans in your area? This is the kind of word
that often retains its form over time.

Best,

Dean Anderson