MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 555) 
it is possible some of these hatched out on the 47th day. One of the hatchlings: 
was dead, its naval string twisted and adherent to the yolk mass within. The 
others were very lively, and all tried to escape from the tin simultaneously, 
creating some excitement. They proved to be 256, 260, 266 and 285 mm. 
(104, 104, 104 and 11} inches) respectively. Two had undoubtedly eaten the 
residual yolk, but the other two were not distended, and if they had eaten any 
of it had done so sparingly. 
On the 7th of July the half-hatched snakeling of yesterday was free of its shell 
but dead, the naval string twisted and adherent to the yolk. This had eaten 
some of the yolk. It measured 228 mm. (9 inches). 
I made the following observations on the oodont or egg tooth. This structure 
was perfectly developed from 7 to 11 
days before the date of hatching. The 
exact day is uncertain, because the 
young took from 49 to 54 days to 
incubate. The oodont was still “in 
situ’ but loose three days after one 
hatchling had emerged. It is a curi- 
ously shaped implement, which 
structurally appears to be a bone rather 
than a tooth. Its resemblance to an 
inverted duck’s head is quite remark- 
able, and it is: fixed by the neck into 
the premaxillary bone, the bill 
projecting considerably forwards. The 
body of the oodont (the head of the duck) is hollow, and its extremity (the bill) 
is chisel-edged transversely, and directed obliquely downwards and forwards 
as shown in the figure. 
When the young cobra is hatched, it is perfectly equipped to carry on an 
independent existence. The poison gland is well developed, the poison copious, 
and there are two perfect fangs ankylosed in each maxilla. 
The two broods recently hatched clear up the point raised by me some years 
ago as to whether variety ceca, the black cobra 
aw B without hood marks, is entitled to rank as a 
variety distinct from variety typica. In my 
| Fo popular article on the cobra in this Journal (Vol. 
Wa XXII, p. 246) I expressed the opinion in a 
; ae footnote that variety ceca is identical with 
poe —— ~ _ typica. I pointed out that in some black cobras 
ay See there is a perfect ‘spectacle’, though it is 
Ue ree obscure, and in others there are usually some 
yy FZ black marks or spots on the hood which persist 
i Be when the rest of the ‘‘ spectacle ” has disappeared. 
It is only rarely that one finds one of these black 
cobras without any trace of ‘“ spectacle ’” or binocellus. The snake is so black 
that these relics of a binocellus are often very difficult to discern. 
Now the Sind cobra is the black variety, and Mr. Flynn with many years’ 
experience of this Province tells me that he has never seen any other variety. 
There are several spirit specimens in the Museum, and all black with no indication 
or very little indication of a binocellus. Both the dams that deposited eggs 
were black. It is interesting, therefore, to note that the young cobras from both 
broods were a dull olive-brown with darker variegations, very similar to the 
common South Indian typica, and all bore a very conspicuous black binocellus 
on the hood. The _ shape of this spectacle mark, however, is very 
variable, and many of the young exhibited modifications similar to those I 
showed semi-diagrammatically in my paper on the snakes of Fyzabad in an 
