92 JOURNAL, BOM BAY NATURAL JUST. SOVIET Y, Vol. XXII. 



Disposition. — In spite of its forbidding appearance this is a pecu- 

 liarly inoffensive reptile. Blanford and other have remarked upon 

 Its quiet nature and I can support their observations. It. does not 

 usually take alarm when encountered, but will permit one to 

 approach close enough to place a stick over it, and allow itself to 

 be captured. In captivity it is a singularly uninteresting, lethar- 

 gic creature allowing itself to be handled, and rarely betraying a 

 malicious spirit. Drumming on the glass of the vivarium even 

 when its nose is against the glass, usually evokes little if any 

 response. In a tank it is hardly more interesting. 



Food. — It feeds exclusively and voraciously on fishes. About 

 Rangoon on the mud flats it frequently pursued a little fish com- 

 monly called the walking perch from its mode of active orogres- 

 sion on the mud by means of fins that are iised as legs. I once 

 found a large fish eight inches in length inside a specimen measur- 

 ing three feet, three inches. I have also known an eel taken. 1 

 frequently saw ( 'erberus wriggling at the end of a fisherman's hook 

 bated with a fish, to the disgust of the angler. 



Breeding. — This like all the other Homalopsids I know is vivi- 

 parous in habit. The young are born in May, June and July, but 

 it is quite likely further observations may extend the season already 

 known. The period of gestation is now known, but from analogy 

 i< likely to exceed six months. I found eggs with no trace of an 

 embryo in a gravid female from Rangoon on the 21st Februarv 

 1000. 



It is fairly prolific, its brood amounting to at least 26. (Junther 

 records a brood of 8. My specimen above alluded to contained 

 7 eggs, and three gravid females received from Moulmein captured 

 between the 26th March and 4th April 1000, contained 14, 23 

 and 26 eggs. These were all in about the same stage of develop- 

 ment, the embryos within measuring about 2^ inches. 



Growth. — In spite of the meagre figures at my disposal these 

 furnish a good deal of information. Gunther's brood already 

 referred to measured from 7 to 7i inches. 1 have had small 

 specimens in Burma brought to me measuring 7f and 7^ inches 

 in May and July respectively. I find the young double their 

 length in the first year of life, and have about trebled it by the 

 end of the second year. It would probably take another two 

 years before specimens attained to three feet, and I have examples 

 of such 3 feet 1 inch, and 3 feet 3 inches in June from Burma. 

 Unfortunately, I have lost my detailed notes regarding the length 

 of my gravid females, so am unable to say when the species is 

 sexually mature. 



Distribution. — It occurs all along out Indian Coasts from Sind 

 and Mekran in the North-west to Tenasserim, and through the 

 Malayan Region to the Philippines and Pelew Islands. 



