512 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



tolas in ten seconds. They frequently attack and swallow 

 one another. They do not thrive for long in captivity, but 

 very speedily die as a rule. 



This is one of the most prolific of the Indian snakes, only 

 being equalled or surpassed in fecundity by the python 

 {Python molurus) and the chequered keelback (Nerodia 

 piscator). It frequently produces from thirty to forty young 

 in one brood, and as many as sixty -two and sixty -three have 

 been recorded. I once found only a single foetus, and I have 

 several records from one to less than twenty. 



(b) Early Life : The growth is difficult to ascertain with 

 certainty, as the season for the production of the young is so 

 protracted. They probably double their length in the first 

 year of life, and treble it by the end of the second year. 



(c) Maturity : The smallest gravid female in my notebooks 

 was 1,015 mm. (3 feet 4 inches) long, and I think would be 

 about 3 years old. 



(d) Maximum Length : Specimens over 1,220 mm. (4 feet) 

 are not uncommon, but over 1,525 mm. (5 feet) are rare. I 

 measured a stuffed specimen once 1,600 mm. (5 feet 3 inches). 

 Fenton has recorded one 1,640 mm. (5 feet 4 J inches), and 

 Brook-Fox two which taped 1,675 mm. (5 feet 6 inches). 



Poison. — (a) The Fangs: These attain their maximum 

 development in this the largest of the Indian vipers. I have 

 one 16 mm. (over half an inch) measured with compasses 

 from base to point, and the curve would probably account for 

 another mm. This was from an average adult. There are 

 two fixed side by side. In a depression at the back, as many 

 as 5 or 6 reserve fangs may be seen lying loosely in the mucous 

 membrane, progressively diminishing in size from within 

 outwards. When one of the fangs is shed, the reserve fang, 

 best developed and lying nearest to it, becomes cemented in 

 a few days into the jaw. 



The fang is tubular, being formed by the folding over of two 

 lateral expansions of the tooth, which blend on its anterior 

 face, in the major part of its length. A groove which is feebly 

 discernible, but always present, marks the line of junction of 

 these two expansions. At its base the expansions fail to meet, 



