552 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



lapse of time after deposition. It is curious from these two last 

 specimens to account for Phipson's hatchlings only measuring 7^ 

 inches. I have had young cobras brought to me measuring 10^ 

 inches in June at Cannanore and 11^, 12^ and 12f inches at 

 Pyzabad in July. Nicholson remarked that out of 1,000 cobras 

 brought to him in May to August 1873, 230 were young of the 

 season measuring from 1 2 to 16 inches, and of 1,220 in the year 

 50 were from eggs deposited. It seems to be a common belief 

 that young cobras newly hatched are not poisonous. This is cer- 

 tainly a mistake, as Mr. Phipson reported that the young cobras 

 that hatched out some years ago in our Society's rooms killed a small 

 Malay python (Python reticulatus) which was placed in their cage, a 

 few days after they were born. They attacked it at once, biting it 

 viciously across the back. 



Growth. — Phipson referring to the hatchlings that were 7% inches 

 when they emerged from the egg, says they grew an inch and 

 a half in about two months, but as these specimens appeared to 

 have died of inanition, having refused all food, one may be certain 

 this underestimates the normal growth. Similarly, I have had 

 specimens submitted to me from Parel which did not develop as 

 cobras usually do in a state of nature. Four of these born on the 18th 

 July 1910 were consigned to spirit on the 2nd of November. I 

 measured these, and found them 11 &, 12, 12, and 12| inches. A 

 fifth specimen born on the 20th July 1910 died on the 7th Decem- 

 ber, and I find it is 12f inches long. 



Nicholson's observation shows that young measuring less than a 

 foot at birth attain a length of from 2^ to 3 feet by the end of their 

 first year of life. This rate of growth is out of all proportion to that 

 noted by me in connection with other snakes, and I expected to find 

 some error in his conclusions. My own notes, however, confirm 

 Nicholson's statements. I find that young averaging 12 inches in 

 July, average 2 feet 6 inches by the next July. At the end of 

 their second year they average 3 feet 8 inches, at the end of the 

 third 4 feet 2 inches, and at the end of the fourth 4 feet 10 inches. 

 The growth, it will be seen, is especially rapid during the first year, 

 and pi-ogressively diminishes in subsequent years. In other snakes 

 I find it the rule that the young proximately double their length in 

 the first year. 



Sloughing. — Fayrer* mentions a cobra that cast its skin on Octo- 

 ber 17th, and again on November the 10th, and December the 7th. 

 Another in his possession desquamated on the loth of October and 

 on the 6th of November. In Trivandrumt a captive cobra shed its 

 skin on November 10th, 1902, and on February 19th, April 8th and 

 July 28th in 1903. I have been told by snakemen that ecdysis 



Loc. cit, pp. 144 aud 143. t The Field, 16th April 1904. 



