A POPULAR TREATISE ON INDIAN SNAKES. 273 



(2) Mr. Millard further tells me that in the Society's cages in 

 Bombay large specimens are so restless when captive, and strike so 

 frequently at the wire netting, that they do not live long. 



(3) This receives abundant confirmation from this year's specimens. 

 I find from my notes that whilst I have had 14 males measuring 

 6 feet 6 inches and over, my largest female was only 6 feet 3 inches. 

 In fact only 4 females reached the limit of 6 feet. 



(4) Another instance of this kind occurred this year. The baboo at 

 the Fyzabad Club on the 2nd July sent me word there were two snakes 

 in the garden close by. I went to investigate, but unfortunately a hue 

 and cry had been raised among the tennis chokras, and they had taken 

 shelter in some brushwood. The baboo told me that for many minutes 

 he had been watching two large snakes, which, as he expressed it, " were 

 playing very nicely." He described them as facing one another, and 

 swaying their erected bodies to and fro. I made no doubt that this was 

 a little love passage I had unfortunately missed, and I instituted a 

 search with the result that I observed one dhaman glide from the spot 

 indicated, and killed the other before it could escape me in the same 

 spot. This proved to be a male 6 feet 9 inches long. The next day at 

 the same spot the female was killed and brought to me, and 1 found 

 she contained 12 large eggs, one typical of the rest, measuring 

 1\ inches, and therefore nearly mature. She was 6 feet 1 inch in length. 

 This again seems to show cohabitation long after impregnation, and if so 

 establishes a bond of union one would hardly expect to find among 

 reptiles. Another possible solution to this episode, however, may be that 

 the male was pressing attentions upon the female, which her condition 

 forbade her reciprocating and that in consequence she was really fight- 

 ing, and not playing. This was suggested to me recently by a similar 

 incident on the part of two buff-striped Keelbacks ( Tropidonotus 

 stolatus). 



(5) I have had two gravid females this year, 5 feet 2^ inches, and 

 5 feet 5 1 inches, respectively. 



( To be continued.) 



