gonads, sexual activity of males had already been interrupted in 

 extreme measure by mid-July and, consequently, mating could occur 

 no later than his period. It is interesting i ha 1 in the smaller 

 female, with a length of 157 cm., well developed fat bodies with 

 a weight of 120 g were observed, while in the adult specimen fat 

 deposits were lacking. Inasmuch as the deposition of shaped fat 

 bodies usually begins in lizards only at completion of the breeding 

 period, it is possible to assume that in the young female the inter- 

 ruption of sexual activity set in correspondingly earlier, obviously 

 already at the end of June. 



In the female studied, dissected August 26, the oviducts were 

 empty, bu i in the ovaries numerous white oocytes were found, some 

 of which attained 8 to 19 mm. in diameter. Furthermore, in the left 

 ovary eight and in the right ovary seven well-defined corpora lutea 

 with distinct cicatrices were found which indicate that the ouipul 

 of 15 ova in the oviduct had occurred no more than a month ago and, 

 consequently, oviposi'ion might have occurred at the end of July 

 or at the very start of August. The we 1 1 -developed fat bodies in 

 the female also speak in favor of such a conclusion, the lobes of 

 which have reached 27 cm. in length with a weight of 220 g. The 

 fact ..hat the female studied laid only 15 eggs is apparently con- 

 nected with her relatively small size, 171 cm., 74 of which are 

 for the torso and head. According to the data of Pfeffer (1959), 

 the number of eggs per clutch for large females reaches 25 to 26. 



It may be noted > hat in many Palearctic reptiles a state of 

 the gonads similar to tha< which was observed for he monitors 

 under study usually is found in 'he fall of the year in the period 

 preceding hibernation. Evideni ly for the giant monitor, as also 

 for a number of other tropical reptiles, the dry season that lasts 

 on i he islands for more than three months is such a period of repose. 



Thus, i he studies made by us showed that in natural conditions 

 the breeding of the monitors occurs 2 to 3 weeks earlier than in the 

 zoological gardens of Java and at entirely differem periods than in 

 the zoological gardens of Europe. (In 1963 for the females captured 

 by us, which had already mated in conditions of freedom on Komodo, 

 egg- laying at the Surabaja Zoological Garden [eastern Java] was 

 observed throughout' July). 



Assuming that the length of the incubation period on Komodo 

 is the same as in the zoological gardens of Java and is equal to 

 8 io 8.5 months, il must be thought that the young monitors make 

 their appearance here as early as March and the start of April, 

 shortly after completion of the rainy season, i.e. in very favor- 

 able periods biologically. 



As has already been mentioned, the period of work on Komodo of 

 our expedition coincided with the periods of egg- laying and, con- 

 sequently, the smallest of the specimens encountered by us might 



