MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 209 



Though every care was taken of the cobra eggs, none of them hatched out. 

 One, which was opened, contained a half-grown snake, the heart of which 

 continued to pulsate for about an hour. 



The Russell's viper, which had been in captivity for a little over 3 months, 

 gave birth to 16 young ones, of which 3 wert. dead. The other viper aborted 

 on the 5th July, producing 39 embryos in ill-formed eggs. The membranous 

 covering of the eggs was very thin and transparent, showing the immature 

 vipers coiled up inside them. It will be seen that two of the 3 dead ones of 

 the first batch are also not fully formed One is not properly uncoiled, the 

 tail half nearly of the body being still attached to the neighbouring coil. 

 The other, though apparently fully formed, shows about two inches of the 

 duct, which in the egg connected the yolk-sac with the intestines, still attached 

 to and entering the body about one inch in front of the vent, 



A sequel to the above may be seen in another bottle. The 13 young vipers 

 were kept together in one box. A few days ago, one of the larger ones at- 

 tempted to swallow one of its companion's head first and choked itself in con- 

 sequence. As the engulphed snake showed slight signs of putrefaction when 

 found, it is probable that it was dead before its neighbour tried to swallow it. 



W. B BANNERMAN. Lt.-Col., m.d., i.m.s. 

 Bo. BaCT. La by., Parkl, 22nd July 1907. 



No. XXVI [.—PECULIAR PROGRESSION OF A COBRA {NAIA 



TRIPUDIANS). 



Mr, Barton Wright has written to our Society on the peculiar progression 

 of a cobra he flushed, and pursued in the Madura District, which he says 

 " moved along like a huge caterpillar, hunching his back, and then using his 

 hetd as a fulcrum to draw himself along." 



!t took refuge in a hole, was dug out, and when dislodged repeated the same 

 extraordinary method of iocomotion, 



N.B. — It is difficult to account for this strange behaviour, which, as far as 

 1 am aware, has not been reported before so far as the cobra is concerned. 

 All I have seen moved in the orthodox anguine fashion, viz., by a series of 

 alternate, bilateral, horizontal, undulations, so^that the whole belly is parallel 

 to the plane traversed. 



It occurs to me to wonder whether this was a normal effort evoked in des- 

 perate attempts to hurry, and escape, or whether it was the outcome of some 

 grievous bodily hurt, which had rendered ordinary progression impossible, 

 this strange antic having been acquired in consequence. 



It is, however, significant to note that precisely the same movement has 



been observed in other bi akes, and what is possible for one animal seems 



likely to be repeated by another of similar bodily conformation. Miss 



Hopley in her book on snakes (p. 184) says : « The black snake of A us- 



27 



