298 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



It is further remarkable that in nearly all females the scales 

 posteriorly reduce to 13 only, whereas in males the scales 

 reduce to 11. I find very few exceptions to this rule. 



(b) Method of Reproduction .- This whipsnake is known to be 

 viviparous in habit . It not infrequently happens that some of 

 the young are born in membranes, but they usually are born 

 free fiom the caul. 



(c) Season: From available records the season for the 

 appearance of the young is from March to December. One 

 brood in Trivandium was deposited on March 31. Green 

 had one brood in April, and another was deposited in the 

 same month at Trivandrum. Green had two broods in May. 

 A dead specimen I opened in Burma in May contained foetuses 

 335 mm. (13 inches) long. Evans killed one in Burma in 

 May containing young, evidently on the point of being born. 

 Kirmear reported two broods born in Bombay in August. I 

 had two prospective mothers in the Nilgiris in September 

 with young in a very advanced stage of development. Fergu- 

 son's brood were deposited on September 27. I have several 

 other records of gravid females with eggs in an early stage 

 of development in July, August, and September. One in the 

 Madras Museum deposited three young on December 3, 1917. 



Green observed two in his vivarium " in coitu " in June. 



I have had young specimens measuring 410 mm. (15| 

 inches) and 480 mm. (18J inches) in the Nilgiris in August, 

 and one 440 mm. (17 inches) in Cannanore in November. 



{d) Period of Gestation: This is not known. Ferguson's 

 dam captured on June 30 produced her young on September 

 27 (89 days later), so that the period of gestation cannot be 

 less than three months. From analogy it will probably 

 be found to be five or six months. 



(e) The Brood: This varies fiom 3 to 22. I have twelve 

 records in which the young numbered from 3 to 7, one ot 10, 

 one of 12, one of 15, one of 18, and one of 22. 



Poison. — Alcock and Rogers, experimenting on mice with 

 the saliva of the whipsnake, sum up their results in the 

 following remarks : " No one who has experimented with 

 minimal lethal doses of cobra venom can fail to be struck 

 with the close resemblance of the symptoms caused by it, 



