96 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



subsequently discharging eggs in my vivarium. My notes 

 contain records of 27 egg-bound females, with eggs in variou.s 

 stages of development in the months of November to May 

 (November, three in Cannanore ; December, two in Dibru- 

 garh (Assam) ; January, one in Cannanore, one in Rangoon, 

 one in Fyzabad, and three in Dibrugarh ; February, one in 

 Rangoon, one in Poona, one in Fyzabad, and three in Dib- 

 rugarh ; March, one in Mandalay ; April, eight in Dibrugarh; 

 May, one in Dibrugarh). Mr. D'Abreu has informed me 

 of an egg-bound female at Nagpur in December. 



My gra\'id female deposited eggs in Rangoon in March, 

 and I had clusters of eggs brought to me in January at Can- 

 nanore, May in Dibrugarh, and August in Shillong. A 

 clutch was deposited in captivity in February at Madras, 

 I was told by Mr. Thurston, Superintendent of the Museum. 



Begbie reported eggs hatching in May at Cawnpore, and 

 I had eggs hatching out in June at Dibrugarh, and in 

 September at Shillong. 



I have had hatchlings in March at Cannanore ; in May from 

 the Andamans; June in Rangoon, Dibrugarh, and the Nilgiris ; 

 July from Fyzabad and the Nilgiri Hills ; August in Shillong 

 and the Nilgiris ; and September in Shillong. 



{d) Period of Gestation : This is one of the very few snakes 

 whose period of gestation is known. In Rangoon a snake 

 was brought to me on January 3, said to have been found 

 in conjunction with another. I kept this alone in my 

 vivarium, and fifty-five days later, on March 9, fourteen eggs 

 were laid between 9 and 11 a.m. Ten more eggs were 

 discharged between March 9 and 23. I think it probable that 

 the enfeebled health of the parent, consequent upon her 

 incarceration, may have caused this protracted and 

 spasmodic discharge of her ova, for on another occasion a 

 specimen in my vivarium laid all her fifty-seven eggs within a 

 few hours. 



(e) Period, of Incubation This is not known. All my 

 attempts to imitate nature and bring the ova to fruition 

 have failed. Where clusters of eggs have been brought to 

 me in a state approaching hatching I have been sometimes 

 successful. 



