﻿314 The Philippine Journal of Science 1914 



was located about 2 meters from the water. It was somewhat 

 irregular in shape, about 2.5 meters in diameter at the base and 

 1.5 meters in height. All around the mound, foot marks of a 

 crocodile and furrows made by the animal's claws could be seen, 

 so it was evident that the reptile had completed the nest very 

 recently, that is, within the preceding few days, as several heavy 

 rains would have washed away the marks in the sand. In pull- 

 ing the mound apart, it was noticed that the material was very 

 firmly packed. The grass was mixed with sand and was moist. 

 In about the center of the mound and about 40 centimeters above 

 the ground, 30 eggs were found arranged in several layers. The 

 eggs were taken with part of the nest material to our camp. 

 One egg was opened, and it appeared -to be absolutely fresh. 

 On the next day, the eggs were transported in a tin can by 

 carriers over a bad mountain trail to our main camp at Taytay. 

 I there packed the eggs in a box filled with fresh grass, leaves, 

 and some of the original nest-material. On June 7 the eggs were 

 taken to Manila, where I kept them with the object of determin- 

 ing the period of incubation and time of hatching. Measure- 

 ments of 20 eggs gave the following results. 



Measurements, in millimeters, of 20 eggs of Crocodilus palustris Lesson. 



78 X50 



77 X49.5 



77 X49.5 



83.5X46 



75.5X49.5 



76 X49.5 



76 X49 



78 X50 



76 X49.5 



76 X49.5 



73.5x49 



79 X49 



76 X49.5 



76 X49 



80 X49 



79 X48 



75.5x49.5 



75.5X49.5 



83.5X50 



82 X48.5 



Average 77.65x49.15. 



The egg is decidedly oblong ellipsoidal and has a very 

 hard porous shell with a high porcelain luster. Though the 

 color is a translucent white, the egg has very strongly marked 

 opaque white band around the middle (girth). The band is 

 about 4 centimeters wide and in strong contrast with the two 

 ends of the egg. 



The eggs were kept in the box with the original material and 

 covered with a 5-centimeter layer of old horse manure. As the 

 incubation proceeded, the white band on the egg became less dis- 

 tinct. On July 1, one egg was opened; the embryo was about 

 6.5 centimeters long. On August 19, another egg was opened, 

 and the embryo was found to be 19 centimeters long. On Sep- 

 tember 4, as no egg had hatched, I opened all of those which 

 showed signs of incubation and found that all of the embryos 

 had died except in one egg which was about ready to hatch. 

 Their death was probably due to the fact that the material in 



