MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



375 



The Assistant Surgeon at Pare] Laboratary, who has favoured me with 

 some notes on events of a domestic nature which have occurred in that 

 Institution, says this snake produces from 20 to 40 at a birth, and always 

 about the month of May. The embryo derived from the specimen which 

 has evoked these remarks, measured 9£ inches, and so would probably have 

 been boru in the month of November. Keference to Mr. Cholmondeley's note 

 shows that the length of those hatchlings that came under his notice varied 

 from 9-10 inches, and it will be noticed that several of the young recorded by 

 others were deposited in the months of May and June. I collected two 

 specimens at Cannanore last year in the month of May, measuring 9§ and \Q\ 

 inches, respectively. 



The Parel foetus, which was developed from the left ovary, occupied a thin 

 transparent, membranous chamber, 2^ inches in length, which when opened 

 allowed a little clear, oily, fluid to escape, but retained a small quantity of 

 transparent jelly-like material which had to be picked off. It was folded into 

 four. The 154th and 155th ventrals were perforate, and the 156th and 157th 

 furrowed, and 17 others intervened before the anal shield. Its sex could not 

 be discovered. 



I was much struck with the length of the maternal ovaries, the right of which 

 measured 6£ inches. I counted 89 follicles in this ovary, and found they varied 

 from 25 — 3 o mcn m length. Th« following comparison between the mother 

 and foetus is interesting, especially with reference to the scales. It is also 

 noteworthy that in the mother the vertebra,! spots were not outlined whitish, 

 w.hilst in the foetus they were. 



Fyzabad, 21st January, 1905. 



F. WALL, Captain, I. M. S., c.M.z.s. 



No. XVI.— THE CROCODILE ; ITS FOOD AND MUSCULAR 



VITALITY. 



I shot a crocodile 11 feet 3 inches long in the Tapti yesterday about 11 a.m. 

 On cutting it open in the afternoon we found that the stomach contained 

 several goat's hoofs, about 21bs. of pebbles of various sizes, and a lot of the 

 fleshy stalks of white lilies (Crinums) which grow on the banks. Is it not 

 rather peculiar that first of all every bit of the goat or goats should have 

 disappeared except the shells of the hoofs, and secondly that the crocodile 



