784 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



Sloufjhing. — Some excellent notes on this little studied function were 

 made in the Madras Museum some years ago.* During the official 

 year 1896 one shed its skin on the 2nd April, 6th May, 28th June, 

 27th July and 2l>th October. Another on the 13th May, 16th June, 

 21st July and 17th October. In a third instance a specimen which 

 was acquired on the 12th August sloughed on the 24th October. 

 Now, it is very curious, and apparently something beyond coincidence, 

 that in all three cases there was no desquamation in the months of 

 August and September, though in the first two cases there had been 

 a regular ecdysis in several preceding months. 



Breeding. — My notes are very meagre in this direction, but suffi- 

 cient to show that the species is ovoviviparous. I received a gi-avid 9 

 on the 2yth February 1904 from Mr. Angus Kinloch (Kil Kotagiri, 

 Nilgiris). It measured 3 feet 4^ inches, and contained 7 nearly 

 mature eggs, from \\ to 1^ inches long, and about ^^ inch broad. 

 Mr. E. E. Green had a specimen which laid 4 eggs in its cage on the 

 11th January li-'Oy, and died next day when 2 more eggs were found 

 in the oviduct. These were all sent to me. The smallest measured 

 1^ X I inches, and the largest If X I'i inches. In cuttnig open 

 egg I found an embryo coiled up in a spiral fashion, lying in an 

 elliptical chamber situated in the upper part of the yolk substance, 

 and midway between the two poles. The embryo I judged might be 

 an inch and a half long wlien unravelled. Its head with the primary 

 cerebral vesicle, eye and lower jaw were well developed, as was also 

 the heart, so that it was in just about the same stage of development, 

 that I noted in the case of the Assam species Dendrophis proarchos, at 

 exovation. f 



CI ^~2) 



Egg showing embryo of Dendrelaphis tristis froni 

 a specimen from Cuyloi!. (X»iurai ^i^t■,) 



Though the species is obviously oviparous it i? probable that minute 



* Adminifltraiion I eport, 1896-97. 



t Since wriang this I have received another gravid § from Mr. Green frooi Ptera- 

 deniya (Ceylon) killed at the end of January and containing 7 nearly mature e^gs. 



