NOTES. 145 



The head of the female tic polonga is smaller and less 

 distinct from the neck than that of the male, and the tail is 

 naturally shorter. 



On April 26, a Helicops schistosus that had been impregnated 

 in captivity laid thirteen eggs, and remained in a very swollen 

 condition until May 13, the lower portion of the body being 

 SAVollen with eggs to an extraordinary extent. Two hardened 

 lumps had appeared through the skin on each side of the anal 

 scale at the beginning of May, and on the 13th the snake died. 

 Dissection revealed the presence of nineteen eggs in the ovaries, 

 and that two of the eggs had burst through the skin, on each 

 side of and above the anal. As far as I could discover this 

 was due to the snake being unable to shed its slough, which 

 had thickened over the anal and prevented the extrusion of 

 the eggs. These two batches, thirty-two eggs in all, constitute 

 a record so far as my personal experience of snakes is concerned, 

 though the python, according to Mr. Hagenbeck, may lay as 

 many as one hundred eggs, the incubation lasting two and a-half 

 months. 



Two eggs of Trojndonotus ceylonensis Avhich I found lying in 

 the open outside a hole, were j^eculiarly shaped, rather like a 

 curved sausage. The eggs were If in. long and nearly -| in. 

 broad, a large size for so small a snake, which averages 18 in. 

 in length. The exposure of the eggs to the sun had probably 

 killed the young, as they were found fully developed but quite 

 dead inside ; another dead one which had just hatched oiit 

 was also found. 



In the young snakes the yellow collar markings were absent, 

 but the yellow borders to the black vertebral blotches were 

 very distinct. The snakes were 6| in. in length. 



Dipsas forstenii has been impregnated and laid numerous 

 eggs in captivity in the months of August and September, 

 and Zaminis mucosus in May, July, and September, though as 

 such a nervous snake as the latter will only breed in a large 

 enclosure, I keep mine loose in a room \vith the pythons. It 

 is a remarkable example of the " anti-reptiHan " appetites of 

 the pythons, that I have never known one to swallow a 

 ratsnake. 



u * * 6(5)13 



