Some aspects of haematology of an Indian grass snake Natrix stolata in relation to sex and size.

Studies have been made on the erythrocyte counts per mm3 of blood, total differential leucocyte counts per mm3 of blood, concentration of haemoglobin per 100 ml of blood, haematocrit values and nucleocytoplasmic ratio in a common Indian grass snake, Natrix stolata, in relation to body weight of both the sexes in the same month of the year (during breeding phase). Logarithmic transformations have been used in case of erythrocyte counts and haemoglobin concentrations. From log/log calculation it seems that the correlation between body weight and erythrocyte is more prounounced in females than in males. The concentration of haemoglobin shows a very high degree of correlation in both the sexes. The haematocrit values show a clear trend of increase with increasing body weight in both the sexes. The nucleocytoplasmic ratio does not show much variation in different weight groups whereas in females the variation is well marked in different weight groups and the size of erythrocyte also becomes larger in higher weight groups. In both the sexes the leucocyte counts have been found that along with the increase in body weights, the number of leucocyte increases in juveniles but in adults the leucocyte number decreases with the increasing body weights.