1034 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



On the 11th of September, whilst at Port Said, large bubbles -were seen to be 

 issuing from two eggs, which a closer inspection showed were fissured at one 

 pole. The young were evidently about to hatch, and the inauguration of 

 respiratory effort, occasioned the bubbling despumation. Both eggs were 

 immersed in spirit, so as to ensure observations on the egg tooth. • 



Two other eggs were allowed to hatch that day, and one on the next. The 

 6th egg did not hatch, but when opened contained a fully formed dead embryo. 

 The eggs after evacuation were found to be almost empty, only a little glairy 

 slime adhering to the shell. After they were cut open, washed, and turned 

 inside out the aperture of escape was examined. This had been formed 

 by several incisions intersecting one another in various directions, and thus 

 permitting the shell to be windowed by a very moderate degree of pressure 

 from within. These incisions viewed beneath a lens showed that they must 

 have been produced by some very perfect cutting instrument, for they were 

 clean, and straight, and completely penetrated the shell in places. Some of 

 these were half an inch long, and the result of a clean, determinate sweep. 

 The 3 hatchlings were kept, and proved to be very tractable, though restless 

 little creatures, permitting me to handle them without attempting to bite. 

 Though tempted with milk on board, and frogs in England, they refused to 

 eat, and rapidly emaciated and died. 4 



The genitals of the males it was specially noticed were no longer extruded, 

 but were retracted into their sheaths, and hidden as in adults. 

 I measured the young as they emerged from the egg, and after their death, 



and they grew very little. A female 

 hatched on the 11th September: 16| 

 inches in length, was 17 inches long when 

 dead on the 6th October. Another female 

 which emerged on the 11th, and measured 

 15| inches, grew to 16^ by the 2nd of 

 October. The male hatched on the 12th 

 was then 14^ inches, and had grown to 

 15 J- inches by the 2nd October. 



None of them sloughed during their 

 brief lives, but one at least before death 

 showed signs of impending desquamation. 

 I made a special examination of the 

 mouth as each hatched, and saw for the 

 first time the egg tooth very distinctly. 

 It was firmly fixed but whether by an 

 osseous, or a ligamentous attachment I 

 could not say. It was chisel shaped, and 

 lay with its flat side against the pre- 

 maxillary bone, that is to say as far for- 

 ward as possible in the upper jaw, from which it projected slightly. 



