SNAKES OV CEYLON. 117 



grape. The poles are equally domed, and the eggs measure 

 from 22 to 35 mm. (| to If inches) in length, and 16 to 18 mm. 

 (f to f) of an inch in breadth. Eggs in the same clutch 

 always vary somewhat in their dimensions, but what one 

 lacks in length is usually compensated for in girth. They 

 sink in water. 



When freshly oviposited they contain a custard-Hke 

 material in which a minute embryo, perhaps one inch long if 

 unravelled, can be discerned if carefully investigated. 



It is extremely difficult to place eggs artificiaUy under 

 conditions favourable to their incubation. One of two things 

 usually happens, either they shrivel up, or become mouldy 

 within a few hours, according as to whether their environment 

 is too dry or too wet. It is certain that they require a humid 

 atmosphere, and, I beUeve, a light approaching twihght, if not 

 darker. After many unsuccessful attempts at incubation, 

 I find the best way to treat them is to put them on fresh earth 

 every day under an inverted flower pot. I turn up earth in 

 the morning to a depth depending on the humidity of the soil, 

 and select that which is slightly damp, and put this to a depth 

 of 3 or 4 inches in a vessel and the eggs on the top. The 

 inverted pot gives them the darkness I think essential, and 

 then the vessel is placed in a shady place. The following 

 morning the earth wiU be found already too dry, and if not 

 changed, the eggs shrivel very rapidly. 



Stolata is not very prolific as snakes go. I have over 

 80 records of egg-bound females and clutches of eggs that 

 have been laid, and find that it may lay from one to fourteen 

 eggs, but from five to ten is the usual number. 



Growth. — (a) Intraoval Development : In Dibrugarh, where 

 the climate and temperature are much the same as Burma, 

 I had eggs brought to me on May 21, containing embryos 4|- 

 inches in length, but they did not hatch out till June 10, when 

 they measured 6 and 6f inches respectively. In this case the 

 embryos grew about two inches in twenty-one days, or about 

 one-third the length they attain to within the egg. Allowing 

 a similar rate of growth for the whole of intraoval life, and a 

 length of 1 inch when the eggs were laid, the embryos would 

 have been about thirty days acquiring a length of 4| inches 



