690 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. - 



bird had fallen my wife saw a large snake and called out to me " there i» 

 a big snake here," almost immediately adding " and it is eating the 

 snipe." She stood quite still to observe and saw the snake open a 

 cavernous pair of jaws and seize the snipe by the tail, but I, foolishly 

 hurrying tip, attracted the attention of the culprit who dropped the snipe 

 and made off. I put a charge of shot into the snake as it disappeared, but 

 it managed to escape into a clump of bushes, so I was unable to identify 

 it, but from the glimpse I got of its tail and body I have little doubt that 

 it was a rat-snake {Zajnenis mucosus). The snipe's tail was somewhat 

 mauled and covered with saliva when picked up. 



F. E. W. VENNING, Capt. 

 Ptawbkoe, 7th December 1911. 



No. XL.— SOME NOTES ON THE HATCHING OF THE 

 AGAMOID LIZARD {CALOTES JERDONI). 



On a pouring wet day, 11th August 1910, I found by the side of a jungle 

 path near Haka, Chin Hills, (alt. 6,200 ft.) one dozen lizard's eggs, the 

 largest of which measured '75 X '55 inches. The eggs were scattered ir- 

 regularly over an area of about three feet by six inches, and were all lying 

 on the surface of some moss under a pine tree. The situation was a steep 

 hillside and there were torrents of water coursing down the path and 

 through the jungle, bub the position of the eggs, which was somewhat raised 

 and was also sheltered by the tree, pointed to the conclusion that they 

 were still in the place where they had been originally deposited. On 

 reaching home I opened one of the eggs and extracted a living young one 

 of this species, apparently almost ready to emerge. The position of the 

 hatching in the egg was as follows : — head bowed on chest, naj)e occupying 

 the pole of the egg, back considerably bent, tail neatly curled inwards on 

 the belly, fore limbs crossed, I think, on the chest, but I could not be 

 certain of this point nor of the position of the hind limbs as the lizard 

 stirred almost immediately on the egg being opened. In 1908 1 had twelve 

 eggs of this species which hatched on and after the 20th August, so I 

 placed the remaining eggs on some moist earth in a large chattie and 

 awaited developments. ^ 



At 7 a.m. on the 28th August I noticed that one of the eggs had several 

 cuts in the shell and the hatchling's snout was visible through one of the 

 openings. I promptly plac-d a second egg in strong spirit for future 

 examination and returned to egg No. 1. This I placed with great care 

 under the microscope using a low power objective (1 inch) and could just 

 detect the foetal tooth as a minute triangular white point projecting under 

 the rostral shield. By 8 a.m. nothing further had occurred, but the little 

 lizard was breathing deeply,each breath causing an eflBlux of moisfcare from 



