A POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 551 



Sixty-two days after coitus, i.e., on the 20th of March, eight eggs 

 were deposited, the first at 8 a.m., six more almost immediately, 

 and then after the lapse of half an hour the last. In Mr. Hampton's 

 case the mating was observed towards the end of March, and eggs 

 were not deposited until the middle of August, nearly 5 months. 



Season of Egg-laying. — The usual month for the deposition of 

 eggs is May. All the eight cobras that have laid eggs at Parel 

 Laboratory did so in that month. Nicholson, too, says that about 

 Bangalore they are laid in May and early June. Mr. Phipson 

 remarked that eggs are laid in the rains, and Fayrer, too, says that 

 his snakemen told him that about Bengal they laid eggs in the 

 rains. Two eggs sent to me from our Society's collection were 

 deposited in June. Wall (A. J.) mentions eggs laid in July, and 

 Hampton's eggs were laid in the middle of August at Mogok. 



Size of Eggs. — The eggs are elongate, white, ovals with soft 

 shells, and similar poles. The two sent me from our Society measure 

 49 x 28 mm. (a shade under 2 inches in length). The almost 

 mature eggs extracted from the maternal abdomen by Flower 

 measured 53 x 34 mm. Eggs sent me from Parel vary much, and 

 are much smaller, and it occurs to me they may have been infertile. 

 Two of these measured 41x20 mm., one 38x19, one 32x20, 

 and a fifth 29 X 15 mm. 



Number of Eggs. — From over a dozen records, I find that the 

 usual number of eggs laid is 12 to 22. I find one record of 8, and 

 the only record of over 22 is Mr. Hampton's. In this case 45 eggs 

 were deposited, 36 seemingly good, and 9 apparently infertile. 



Incubation. — Fayrer says on the evidence of his snakemen that 

 the cobra incubates her eggs, and that they frequently dug out 

 mother, and brood. This is in accordance with the habits of other 

 snakes and receives direct confirmation from Colonel Dawson, who 

 told me that at first his dam coiled herself among her eggs. The 

 period of incubation has been ascertained at Parel. Eggs laid on 

 the 12th May hatched out on the 20th of July, i.e., in 69 days. 

 The period that elapses then between coition, and the advent of the 

 young is rather over 4 months. 



Hatchlings. — Mr. Phipson reported young measuring only 7i 

 inches as they emerged from the eggs in our Society's rooms. All 

 the other testimony at my command agrees in assigning to the 

 hatchling a length of 10 to 11 inches. Assistant Surgeon 

 Robertson told me the young he saw just hatched measured 11 

 inches. I measured one of those that hatched at Parel, which was 

 bottled at once, and found it was 10^ inches long. Nicholson 

 remarks that at birth they are less than one foot. Now Colonel 

 Bannerman extracted an embryo from an egg 43 days after 

 deposition, and found it taped 7 inches. Another that was removed 

 from an egg by me measured 9 inches ; but it is not specified at what 



