NOTES ON SNAKES COLLECTED JN UPPER ASSAM. 



617 



In ;i clutch of eggs brought on the 2 1st of May a ^ embryo measured 

 4g". The genitals were extruded. Two of these hatched on the 10th June 

 measuring G" and 6-^". The sexes were not noted but there is no difference 

 in size in this species at exovration. A growth of 1 i' to 2 inches was attained 

 in 20 days. Of 5 eggs brought on the 3rd of June 4 embryos were $ $ and 1 ^. 

 The $ 9 measured from 5g to 5 ,-V' and the $ 5J^". The latter had the 

 genitals extruded. On the 27th June 9 eggs were brought comprising two 

 clutches. The embryos in one lot were 2h" long, and in the other a ^ was 

 G^" and a 9 6^", the genitals of the former being still extruded. On the 5th 

 July 3 of the second lot hatched, and on the 6th 2 more. One of these escaped 

 but the others were examined, as follows : — 





Remarks. 



9 

 9 

 $ 



4tli and 5th right supralabials confluent. 



4th and 5th supralabials confluent on 



both sides. 

 4th and 5th supralabials partially con- 



fluent on both sides. 

 4th and 5th right supralabials confluent. 



In 8 or 9 days the growth of these embryos was in the ^ ^^" , and in the 

 9 §". At the period of exovration the $ genitals were no longer extruded. 



In an embryo, which measured 4|", the claspers were sausage-shaped bodies 

 dimpled posteriorly where evidently the muscle (or ligament ?) which retains 

 the organ in its sheathed position in the adult is attached. By a contraction 

 of this muscle shortly before hatching, the clasper would appear to become 

 sheathed by being drawn within itself, much in the same way as the digits of 

 a glove may be, on being withdrawn from damp fingers. In this specimen the 

 ventrals were 157, the 26th to the 32nd covering the heart and the 88th and 

 89th the gall bladder. In an embryo 2^" long the heart was observed beating, 

 first the auricle, and the ventricle contracting, the latter by its contraction 

 making the transverse diameter of the organ as broad as its longitudinal diameter 

 was in the interval (diastole). This snake is infested with just the same 

 parasites as T. piscator. I sometimes found masses of the larval form of tape- 

 worm (^Pterocercus) in such quantity that I was misled into supposing a 

 specimen gravid. The stomachs of several were very much thickened, indu- 

 rated, and knuckled bj- the clusters of nemotade worms (A'aZ/ce^j/taZ^s nilleyi) 

 which attach themselves to the inside coats of this organ. The third parasite 

 (Porocephalus hrntalt) was also frequently observed attached to tissues in the 



