158 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
young snake, and in the other a delicate diaphanous membrane. 
I am puzzled to know the facts concerning the report given to 
Mr. Green that the parents were in the ‘‘ nest’ with the eggs and 
hatching young. There seems to be no doubt that there were two 
adult snakes in attendance, but were these é and ¢, 7.e., the parents, 
as supposed ? It appears to me that there were undoubtedly in 
the “nest” two distinct broods of eggs. From one lot the young 
were hatching, and two of these measured 9 and 10;; inches 
respectively, the other were far less advanced in incubation, the 
contained embryos being little more than half the length of hatch- 
ings. These measurements have been already given. Now, if we 
assume that the two adults were the parents as originally supposed, 
then the existence of two broods must point to superfcetation, a 
condition which I do not think has ever been established in the 
breeding of snakes. Unfortunately the adult snakes were never 
sent with the eggs, and the point cannot be cleared up, and there is 
no proof of superfcetation. Another solution presents itself, and 
that is that both the adults were females, in different stages of 
impregnation. This seems to me the more likely explanation of the 
two broods, though it appears to me remarkable that two snakes 
should select and retire within the same hole to deposit and incubate 
their eggs. I have had a considerable number of opportunities of 
investigating the incubation of snake’s eggs in a state of nature, 
and only once have I known aé in company with its mate after the 
deposition of eggs. In this case the species was Shaw’s Wolfsnake 
(Lycodon striatus). 

