SNAKES OF CEYLON. 95 



does it wait till they are dead, but if advantageously seized 

 it commences to swallow at once, so that the frog, when this 

 happens to be the unfortunate, continues to squeal piteously 

 for some time after engulf me nt. On one occasion only have 

 I found a mammal ingested, and that a mouse. 



Breeding. — (a) The Sexes : Females attain to a greater 

 length than males, and have shorter tails. Blanford des- 

 cribes a pair which he dislodged from beneath a large stone 

 in a stream. They had evidently made their home there, 

 and he remarks that they showed a disinclination to quit the 

 spot. It is remarkable that though they were evidently 

 cohabiting, the female was in an advanced state of egg- 

 bearing. This, with other cases of a similar kind, leads me 

 to think that snakes possess a mutual love and attachment 

 in no way inferior to that exhibited by many warm-blooded 

 animals, which preserve their conjugal relationship long 

 past the term of sexual gratification. 



The anal glands in both sexes furnish a yellow secretion 

 like custard, with a penetrating and disagreeable odour. 



The male clasper is a subcylindrical organ, not bifid at its 

 summit, and is covered with a multitude of extremely small, 

 recurved claw-like processes from base to extremity. These 

 processes are disposed so closely and are so fine that they 

 give a villose appearance to the surface. A few enlarged 

 processes are grouped together at the extreme base of the 

 organ on its inner and outer faces, and a solitary enlarged 

 process is to be seen on the posterior surface of the organ 

 at about the junction of its lower and middle thirds. 



(b) Method of Reproduction : The chequered keelback is 

 oviparous. I have had many clusters of eggs brought to me, 

 and on two occasions a dam has deposited her ova in my 

 vivarium. The eggs were discharged into the water and 

 sunk in that element, but they are not naturally voided into 

 the water, because after a few hours their contents, by a 

 process of osmosis, mingle with that fluid rendering it milky, 

 and the eggs decompose. 



(c) Season : Father Dreckman informed me of a pair 

 " in copula " at Khandalla in October. I had a pair observed 

 in similar circumstances at Rangoon in January, the female 



