MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 691 



the slits in the shell. I had to leave the egg now and could not resume 

 my observations till 10-40 a.m. when I found the young lizard's whole head 

 protruding from the shell and its eyes wide open and fully conscious of my 

 movements. After about five minutes the hatchling made an effort to 

 obtain its release and at the second attempt wriggled out of its shell and 

 without pausing ran to the edge of the chattie and fell over. I rescued it 

 and placed it in a finger bowl. It was extremely lively. The navel aper- 

 ture was distended and a globular piece of whitish (appareptly albuminous) 

 matter was extended measuring about one line in diameter. This 

 subsequently became rubbed off on some earth. At 11 a.m. the measure- 

 ments were ; head and body 1-2 inches, tail 2'8 inches. The dorsal crest 

 and two rows behind the eyes showed as distinct ridges, and in all other 

 respects the specimen was perfectly developed. A.little albuminous matter 

 remained in the shell, which was extremely tough and of the consistency 

 of white kid glove. Egg No. 2 showed no signs of cuts when I put it in 

 spirit, but at about 11 a.m. I found the hatchling had broken the shell and 

 struggled half out before succumbing. 



The remaining eggs all hatched similarly except that the occupants 

 were not so much disturbed and had the navel aperture quite free from 

 any matter when they emerged and showing merely as a longitudinal slit 

 about ^ inch long. 



The hatchlings had in a very marked degree the power, conscious or 

 unconscious, of assimilating their colour to the hue of their surrounding, 

 becoming brownish when placed on bare earth or a brown twig and 

 greenish when placed on a green leaf. 



A full-grown female of this species taken by me on 10th May 1910 was 

 found to contain 12 eggs, the largest of which measured "6 x "So inches 

 but in this case the eggs were very soft skinned and contained no traces 

 of any development of the embryo. 



Major Wall has described the finding of a pair " in copula " on 25th 

 August in the Khasi Hills (B. N. H. S. J., XVIII, page 506). It would 

 appear, therefore, from the scanty records above that the period of gesta- 

 tion lasts a whole year, but further observations would be interesting. 



Thts activity of the hatchling immediately on emergence from the 

 egg and its ability to adapt its hue to bhat of its environment are evidently 

 inherited protective devices of considerable importance to the species 

 when one remembers the large number of Ophidia, not to mention birds 

 that prey upon it. In this connection I might mention that a very youno- 

 mongoose I had, which was also very weak on its legs, one day pursued 

 and captured an adult C. jerdoni to my utter astonishment. The lizard 

 was obviously very much fleeter of foot, but the mongoose followed slowly 

 but relentlessly until the lizard was apparently run to a standstill, when 

 it was captured and devoured. 



