162 NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
reticulations which form its distinctive marks. Two others are 
described in popular natural histories, viz.:—P. regius and P. sebe ; 
a fourth variety found in Singapore and named P. Curtus being 
ignored. The latter has a red in place of an olive ground, and, as 
only one example—that in the Leyden Museum—has reached Eu- 
rope, specimens command a high value, fifteen or twenty dollars 
being readily given at the Raffles Museum, which possesses the 
only two caught during the last few years. 
The python reticulatus is frequently (and erroneously) called a 
boa constrictor, all boas being of American origin. All snakes of ~ 
this species contradict the assertion in the Encyclopedia Britan- 
nica that “no reptile is known to hatch its eggs.” The egg from 
which this drawing was made was detached from a mass of about 
one hundred, cemented together by a glutinous substance. Around 
this mass the female snake coils herself. Cold-blooded as snakes 
are, its temperature on such oceasions rises to 75° Fahrenheit, which 
is maintained for 56 days, when the young begin to emerge from 
the shell. The latter resembles tough parchment, and is elastic to 
the touch. All the eggs in the mass described were found to con- 
tain live snakes about 16 inches long. 
The Raffles Museum is indebted to the Maharaja of Johor for 
this interesting addition to its collection. 
N. B. D. 
FLYING LIZARD. 
This pretty little animal, of which a life-size illustration is given, 
abounds in Singapore, and is known as draco volens. The specimen 
from which the drawing was made gave me a slight shock by 
missing its leap and plunging between my collar and neck, causing 
much momentary discomforture, until its long tail sticking out mace 
a companion exclaim “ Why it’s only a lizard !” 
Few natural histories give any particulars of this interesante 
reptile, which is capable of a considerable length of flight, if such 
it can be termed. The eggs are tiny little things about the size 
of peas, but I have never succeeded in obtaining an embryo, or 
seelng a newly-hatched specimen. It may here be noted:that no 
