118 Catalogue of Reptiles inhabiting the 



Habit. — Pinang, Singapore, Malayan Peninsula. 

 Bengal, Coromandel. 

 It is numerous in the Malayan hills and valleys, but apparently of 

 uncommon occurrence in Bengal. 



Var. nigra. 



Syn. — Naja tripudians, Var. nigra, Gray, Illustr. Ind. Zool. 

 Naja tripudians, Var. Schlegel. 



Upper parts intense black with strong purple or blue reflections ; 

 temples, lips, and throat pale orange, largely spotted with black ; the 

 lateral part of the anterior eight or ten, and of the 14th, 15th, and 

 1 "th scuta pale orange, black in the centre and with a broad black 

 margin ; the scales and interstitial skin on each side of the anterior 

 eighteen or twenty scuta white or buff, appearing on the lower sur- 

 face of the hood as two short parallel bands. The rest of the abdomi- 

 nal surface paler black than above, strongly iridescent, in certain lights 

 pale silvery. Iris black with the orbital margin pale grey ; tongue 

 light flesh-coloured. 



Scuta 184 to 187; Scutella 49 to 52. 



Habit. — Pinang, Singapore. 



At Pinang the preceding variety prevails, at Singapore the present. 

 Both are local, and they appear respectively to congregate on single 

 spots of limited extent. Another black variety {Naja atra, Cantor) 

 which inhabits Chusan, differs from the present in having a number of 

 distant transversal double lines of a yellow colour. Beneath it is slate- 

 or pearl-coloured. 



The food of Naja lutescens consists of rats, small birds, (it occasion- 

 ally ascends trees,) lizards, and fishes, in search of which latter it fre- 

 quently takes the water, and even the sea, along the coasts. The 

 largest individual of the two Malayan varieties, was of the following 

 dimensions : 



Length of the head, ft. \i inch. 



Ditto ditto trunk, 4 1 



Ditto ditto tail, 9 



4 ft. : inch, 

 ink, 4-g-j 



8 



Circumference of the neck, 2^, of the trunk, 4f, of the root of the 

 tail, 2| inch. 



