POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 9 



captivity that killed a green whipsnake (Dryophis mycterizans) 

 with which it was quartered. 



Like other boas it kills its victims by constriction, and the 

 strength of its body is such that the life is crushed out of a squirrel 

 or mouse in a few seconds, and until life is extinct it does not 

 commence swallowing. 



The sexes. — Of the 18 specimens I sexed in Cannanore 9 were 

 j <5 , and 9 $ $ , showing that the sexes are evenly balanced. 

 The § appears to grow distinctly larger than the j . I never 

 had a male reaching a length of 2 feet, though I have had 3 $ $ 

 •exceeding that length. The largest record I have already alluded 

 to was also a $ Mr. Leigh's 2 foot 9 inch, specimen. The deve- 

 lopment of the tail differs in the sexes, the length being in favour 

 of the j , in which this appendage accounts for from one-eleventh 

 to one-fourteenth the total length of the snake. In the $ it is 

 from one- fourteenth to one-seventeenth the total length. There 

 appears to be another sexual difference judging from my notes, 

 and this is in the costal rows which number in midbody 47 to 51 

 in the $ , and from 43 to 48 in the j . 



Breeding. — Our knowledge of the breeding is not what it ought 

 to be when one considers what a common snake it is, and how 

 well it thrives in captivity. In Southern India the season of 

 matrimonial intercourse is about November, but we do not know 

 whether the snake is oviparous or viviparous. I had a gravid $ 

 killed in camp on the 7th of December at Cannanore within which 

 were 6 largish eggs, perhaps an inch long. Mr. Leigh told me 

 of one he had in Trichinopoly that contained 1 6 eggs about half 

 an inch in length, in early January. Dr. Annandale* however 

 mentions a $ specimen said to have been found with 3 young ones 

 at Ramanad in August. The smallest specimen I know was a s Cl- 

 inches long in November, but whether a hatchling or not I could 

 not say. One noticeable feature in the young is that the navel is 

 placed very much further away from the anus than is the case 

 with colubrine snakes. I have counted no less than 43 ventrals 

 intervening. 



* loc cit. 



