NOTES ON SNAKES COLLECTED JN FYZABAD. 107 



The scales two heads lengths after the head are 19, at midbody 19, 

 and two heads lengths before the vent 17. The absorption from 19 to 

 17 rows is brought about by a disappearance of the 4th row above the 

 ventrals, which becomes fused with the 3rd usually, sometimes the 5th. 



Tropidonotus yjiscator. 



Of this I obtained 131 specimens. As noted by me in other 

 stations it is very little in evidence during the hot season, but emerges 

 from retirement as soon as ever the rains break, and is then as abundant 

 here as in other parts of India. I obtained two in May and one in 

 June, 1905, and none at all during the hot season of 1906. AH the 

 other specimens were brought in after the rains were established. 

 This species was responsible for three bites inflicted by snakes that 

 I was able to trace to their origin, and in this connection it may be 

 of interest to remark here how impossible it is to judge from the 



s. impressions of the teeth whether a bite has 



^* . - been inflicted by a poisonous or non-poison- 



^^ ^^^_ *-' ous species. To hazard a guess under the 



1 ~J^ / "' circumstances is quite unjustifiable. I give 



^ the patterns of the wounds inflicted in two 



' cases, drawn by me with extreme care. 



A specimen I found one day whilst duck shooting had insinuated itself 

 between some boards facing the supports of a bridge, and died a 

 miserable death. The fact that it had struggled to drag its body 

 through a fissure too narrow for it, instead of retracting it when con- 

 scious of undue compression, argues a very feeble intelligence. 



Sexes. — Of 44 individuals sexed, 25 proved to be females and 19 males. 



Breeding. — Only one gravid female was captured. This con-* 

 tained 47 eggs, ^ of an inch long, on the 22nd February. 



Hatching. — Though I got no hatchlings in either year before July, 

 the size of some of the specimens I obtained in that month compared 

 with the measurements of the young when hatching, and the rate of 

 growth, both of which I am fully acquainted with, leave no doubt that 

 they must have emerged in June or earlier. In July 1905 I obtained 

 six, varying from 8| to lOf inches, and in July 1906, seventeen speci- 

 mens ranging from 8 to 12| inches in length. 



Some of the very young were extremely aotive, struck out, and bit 

 fiercely, and actually jumped oflf the ground in their endeavours to 

 elude capture. 



