BUNGARUS FASCIATUS. 3i3 



the danger depends, as in other venomous snakes, on many drcumstances — chiefly on tlie 

 size and energy of the individual snake, and on the place of the wound. As the fangs of 

 the Bungarums are comparatively short, the Avound is always superficial, and can be easily 

 excised and cauterized ; also, experiments made on animals show that the general effect on 

 the whole system becomes visible only after a lapse of time. 



All the species known belong to the continental fauna, two of them extending to some of 

 the islands of the Archipelago ; the diagnoses given, although short, will be found fully 

 sufficient to recognize and distinguish these closely allied species. 



BUNGARUS C^RULEUS. 



? ? Coluber Candidas, L. Mus. Ad. Fried, tab. 7. fi^. 1 . 



Pseudoboa coerulea, Schneid. Hist. Amph. p. 284. 



Boa Krait, Williams, As. Res. ii, p. 328. 



Russell, Ind. Serp. i. tab. 1. 



Boa lineata, Shaw, Zool. iii. p. 356. 



Biuigarus cceruleus, Baud. Hist. Rept. v. p. 270. Dum. £f Bibr. vii. p. 1273. 



Uvidus, Cantor, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, p. 32. 



Candidas, Cantor, Mai. Rept. p. 113 (not synon.). 



arcuatus, Dum. ^ Bibr. vii. p. 1272. 



liueatus, Giinth. Colubr. Snakes, p. 219. 



The first temporal shield is considerably longer than high. Ventrals 201-221 ; subcaudals 

 38-56. Lower parts uniform white; upper parts bluish or brownish black, uniform, or with 

 more or less numerous, very narrow white cross streaks, not quite as broad as a scale, and 

 generally radiating from a white vertebral spot. No collar. 



Var. a. Upper parts uniform blackish brown : JB. Uvidus, Cantor, from Assam. In young 

 specimens the head is white, with a black line between the occipitals. 



Var. /3. A vertebral series of equidistant small white spots, from which narrow transverse 

 streaks proceed. 



Var. -y. Upper parts with narrow white streaks arranged in pairs: £. arcaatus, D. & B. 



This species is rather common throughout the peninsula of Southern India, in Bengal, 

 and in Assam, but not in Ceylon. It attains to a length of 54 inches, of which the tail takes 

 about one-seventh. 



BUNGARUS FASCIATUS. 



Seba, ii. pi. 58. fig. 2. Russell, Ind. Serp. i. pi. 8. 



Pseudoboa faseiata, Schneid. Hist. Amph. p. 283. 



Bmigarus annularis, Baud. Rept. v. p. 265. Schleg. Phys. Serp. ii. p. 457. pi. 16. fig. 21, and 



Abbild. taf. 48. figs. 1-5. 

 fasciatus. Cantor, Mai. Rept. p. 113. 



The first temporal shield is scarcely longer than high. Ventrals 200-233; subcaudals 



