ON COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 97 



Anal glmds, — I have found these glands which are supposed to be 

 connected with the sexual functions active in both sexes, and at most 

 parts of the year. The secretion is custard-like in colour and consis- 

 tency. The copulatory male organs are beset with many minute 

 recurved spines. 



In a previous paper dealing with Russell's Viper (Vol. XVIII, 

 p. 13) I remarked that I was inclined to think that the oldest mothers 

 were the most fecund. My notes on the wolf-snake certainly make it 

 appear so, for the smallest females, 1 foot 6^ inches in length, contained 

 3 and 4 eggs, and the largest 2 feet 5 inches in length, 11 eggs. 

 Further 5 of the 6 egg-bound specimens over 2 feet in length 

 contained from 7 to 11 eggs, whilst in 8 others where the length 

 is recorded, all less than 2 leet, only from 3 to 6 eggs were found '' in 

 abdomina." My figures are as follows : — 



Eggs. — I have had many females brought to me gravid all with one 

 exception during the first 7 months of the year. The one exception 

 was egg-bound in Rangoon on the 20th December. Of the rest, one 

 in Cannanore was gravid on the 20th January ; three in Cannanore 

 in February ; one in Cannanore, and two in Fyzabad in March ; one 

 in Cannanore, two in Fyzabad and five in Dibrugarh in April ; one 

 in Cannanore and three in Dibrugarh in May ; one in Cannanore, and 

 one in Fyzabad in June> and three in 1< yzabad in July. 



The eggs are deposited in the months from February to July. 

 They vary in number from three to eleven but are usually from 

 four to seven. They are elongate white ovals, equally domed at 

 each pole, and soft to the touch, the shell resembling white kid, until 

 vacated when it dries and hardens into a somewhat crisp parchment- 

 like envelope. When seen '* in abdoni na" they ase frequently but 

 by no means always particoloured — grey and white. The grey 

 colour appears to me to be di.e to absorption of colouiing matter 

 13 



