76 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



stomach, once in a diminutive specimen only 1\ inches long. The 

 iizards I have known taken are Ptyctoloema gularis once, a Calotes 

 once in Shillong which was almost for certain jerdoni as the scales 

 were of a vivid green colour, and skinks of the genus Lygosoma on 

 three occasions, two of these being L. indie a. 



' CD 



The sexes. — My notes show that the sexes are evenly balaneed, 

 and with the exception of one unusually large 9 my measurements 

 seem to indicate a similar degree of growth between them. Males 

 as a rule have rather longer tails. 



<D 



Breeding. — I have had opportunities of chronicling but few breed- 

 ing events, so that I cannot speak with any great certainty of this 

 important function. In the hills the mating season would appear to 

 be in summer, probably about August since I have had two speci- 

 mens with impregnated ovarian follicles in September in the Khasi 

 Hills (Shillong) and one in the same month in the Eastern Himalayas 

 (Pashok). As regards the Plains I can vaguely suggest that matrimo- 

 nial intercourse probably occurs in the winter months — December 

 to February — at least so it would appear. The period of gestation is 

 not known, but probably exceeds four months, since the young are 

 discharged alive. The gravid 9 I kept in Dibrugarh appeared 

 obviously in this state two months before I killed her and eviscerated 

 her unborn progeny. In the Plains the young are born in June 

 and July, for I captured a hatchling 4| inches long in Rangoon in 

 June and the almost mature embryos of my captive Dibrugarh 

 specimen just alluded to were expected in July. 



The young at birth measure from about 4| to 5£ inches. The 

 species is not very prolific from an ophidian standpoint. I have 

 on two occasions found 10 eggs in the oviducts, once 8, and in 

 my Dibrugarh specimen there were 3 embryos, and 3 non-fertile 

 eggs. 



The rate of growth i- somewhat difficult to calculate from my 

 records, but it appears to me that the young double their length in 

 the first year, add some 4 to 6 inches in the second, and at the 

 beginning of their third year appear to be sexually mature since 

 oay smallest gravid 9 measured 1 foot 3| inches. These deductions 

 are in consonance with my observations on other snakes. 



Distribution. — The Eastern Himalayas probably as far West as the 

 Western limit of Nepal, the Assam Hills and Plains, the Burmese 



