616 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



quered keelback piscator, viz., about two months. A specimen of 

 mine in Cannanore captured on the 21st June laid five eggs on 

 the 29th July. As the specimen was obviously gravid when 

 caught gestation must considerably exceed five weeks. A specimen 

 in captivity in the Madras Museum whose date of capture was 

 unfortunately not recorded, laid the first of fourteen eggs on the 

 1 7th August. As it was noted that the specimen sloughed on the 

 28th June, at least seven weeks elapsed before the discharge of this 

 egg. The $ at full term retires to any convenient refuge in the 

 ground, and there deposits her eggs some few inches below the 

 surface. Unlike some other snakes she does not appear to be 

 attended by her consort at or subsequent to this eventful period. 

 I have only once known a ^ in company with a $ after impreg- 

 nation. This was in Fyzabad in July. The two snakes were 

 described as confronting one another with reared bodies, and they 

 remained actively engaged in this manner for some minutes. 

 Both were killed, and I sexed them, and found the $ in an 

 advanced state of impregnation. It is impossible to know whether 

 this was a chance encounter which seems probable or whether their 

 behaviour was of an amorous, or hostile character. 



Oviposition. — In Rangoon I had a specimen that laid eggs in 

 August. In Cannanore a $ deposited her eggs on the 29th July, 

 and another laid eggs in August. In Fyzabad a $ deposited eggs 

 in August. The Madras specimen already referred to oviposited 

 in August and September. 



I have frequently had eggs in clutches brought to me unearthed 

 after deposition under natural conditions. In Rangoon once in 

 June, in Dibrugarh several in May (once as early as the 1st) and 

 June, and in Shillong once in August. 



The full complement of eggs is discharged normally within a 

 few hours, but some specimens in captivity have discharged them 

 fitfully at intervals. A specimen I captured in Fyzabad on the 

 7th July laid one egg that night, and discharged ten more on the 

 aight of the 1 2th of the same month. A specimen in the Madras 

 Museum* laid fourteen eggs as follows: — August — one on the 19th, 

 one on the 20th, two on the 22nd; September — three on the 12th, 

 *Admin. Report, Madras Museum. 1896 to 1897. 



