SNAKES FROM THE KHAS1 HILLS, ASSAM. 331 



Hood mark of 



Cohra. 

 fH.trifiudzanbJ 



I may here remark that three different people in Shiiloiig in- 

 dependently told me that a month or two before my visit a juggler 

 had come round having in his possession a perfectly uniformly bright 

 green cobra. I can find no reference to such a colour variety in the 

 literature on this snake. I tried to trace this man, but he had 

 evidently left the place, so that I could obtain no information as to 

 where he obtained the specimen. Singularly enough the first time 

 I had ever heard of such a colour variety was a week or two before 

 my visit to Shillong. My informant was Mr. W. Tottenham, Con- 

 servator of Forests, who mentioned that he had once met with such 

 a specimen in North Siam at a place called Nan on the Mekong 

 River. He described it as erecting its hood and behaving in every 

 way like a cobra, differing only in its colour from usual specimens. 



Naia bungarus. 



The " Bsein yong" of the Khasis, meaning black snake. A single 

 $ 6 feet 6^ inches was brought to me on the 21st September. It 

 was reported to have been seen entering a house close to the Shillong 

 bazaar eorly in the morning, and was pursued, and killed. Ventrals 

 254, subcaudals 88, the first 12 entire, the rest divided. The scales 

 wer9 17 anteriorly, 15 in midbody and 15 posteriorly. The step 

 from 17 to 15 occurred just after the site I select for numbering the 

 scales anteriorly, viz., two heads lengths behind the head, and the 



