MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 373 
four scales in the posterior part of the body, The yellow bands involve from 
two to four scales in the whole length, 
There are 33 yellow bands on the body in one specimen, and 14 on the tail ; 
32 on the body of the other, and 16 on the tail. 
Head black, with some yellow mottling on the upper labials, 
Chin and throat yellow. 
F, WALL, Capt., I. M.S., 
Gro. H,. EVANS, Very. Caprt., A.V.D, 
Rancoon, March, 1900. 
No, VI.—NOTES ON THE BREEDING OF TROPIDONOTUS 
PISCATOR. 
On January 3rd, this year, I had a Tropidonotus piscator brought me alive 
by some coolies, said to have been caught “in copula.” 
Investigation regarding this statement evoked conflicting accounts, How- 
ever, though I did not know the sex, [ resolved to keep it in ease of 
possible developments, and was rewarded formy trouble on the 9th of 
March (fifty-five days later), when the sex was made evident by the creature 
depositing fourteen eggs, all of which were laid between 9 a.m, and 11 a.m. 
Subsequently ten more eggs were laid at various intervals as follows: — 
1 [15th] during night of 9th, 
[16th] 5-55 p. m. on 10th. 
[\7th] during night of 10th. 
[18th] 10-10 a, m. on 11th, 
[19th] 8-15 a. m. on 12th, 
[20th] 4-15 p. m, on 12th. 
[21st] during night of 19th, 
3 during night of 23rd, making twenty-four in all. 
These eggs were soft-shelled, white, not glossy, had no attachment to one 
another, and were frequently soiled with the cloacal contents. They varied 
a good deal in size, viz., from 1,3,” to 142” in length, by 23” to 1” in breadth. 
The tension too varied considerably, a few being very flaccid, and others 
nearly or quite as firm as the human eyeball. In weight tco the difference 
was remarkable, varying from one drachm twenty-eight grains, to two 
drachms thirty-seven grains, The poles were alike, The creature lay 
coiled in a gumlah of water, and all the eggs were discharged into, and sunk 
in this element. 
Se top 
The eggs were numbered, and stowed away in various places, to await 
incubation, some on dry saw-dust, some on damp saw-dust, and some left in 
water, but unhappily no single one hatched, Those on damp and dry saw- 
dust became shrunken, and dessicated, and those left in the water swelled 
and became vapid, Some osmosis must have occurred in the latter case, as 
the water soon acquired a milky opacity, and prior to decomposition assert- 
ing itself, 
