146 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



Colour. — Uniform or nearly uniform black, or blackish 

 dorsally, or varying shades of brown, olive-brown, or olive-green 

 more or less spotted or speckled blackish. The spots vertebrally 

 and laterally have a tendency to confluence, and may form lines. 

 Belly pale yellowish, yellow, ochraceous, or ruddy, sparsely or 

 profusely spotted, speckled, or marbled with black. 



Tro2Jidonotus stolatus. 

 One female killed on the 12th September, 1904, besides 

 containing a much digested frog was found to be pregnant. 

 There were 8 eggs (6 in one ovary and 2 in the other). The 

 ventrals were 139, subcaudals QQ, of which the 32nd, 50th, 51st, 

 59th, and 60th were entire. As in Malabar specimens the labials 

 were 8, with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th touching the eye. The nasals 

 were in contact with the 1st and 2nd labials, a very unusual 

 character in Indian examples of this species. Usually it is only 

 the 1st labial that is apposed to the nasal. 



Zamenis mucosus. 

 One specimen about one-third grown, with nothing remarkable 

 to mention. 



Naia tripudians. 

 I received the head of one of this species, which is uncommon 

 at the same altitude in India. 



A7icistrodon hyijnale. 



Twenty-seven specimens of this species were collected, so that 

 it must be a very common snake in this locality. 



Food. — It evidently subsists mainly upon the skink, Lygosoma 

 taprobanense, as no fewer than 11 specimens contained one or 

 more of these lizards, or in some instances the tails only. I also 

 found in the stomach of 5 examples small soft-shelled eggs about 

 half an inch long, probably lacertine, but possibly ophidian. 

 From one male specimen one such was seen protruding from the 

 anus, which I extracted and examined. It consisted of the egg 

 envelope only, compressed, and wrinkled longitudinally, but with 

 no opening that I could discover, so that it was a mystery to 

 me how the contents had been absorbed unless by a process 

 of exosmosis. I floated it in water, teased out the wrinkles, 

 and examined it most closely, then cut it carefully from pole to 

 pole and re-examined it from the interior, but could find no sus- 

 picion of a breach in its continuity. Birds' eggs are occasionally 

 passed entire " per anum," but are more frequently, I believe, 

 wholly dissolved by the digestive juices. Perhaps the coriaceous 

 investment of ova such as this offers a greater resistance to the 



