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labials, the third and fourth entering the orbit. One prseocular. 

 Two to four postoculars. Colour very variable, from pale yellow- 

 ish to pale and dark brown, and black. The spectacle marks 

 also vary in development, and are sometimes replaced by a pale 

 oval ocellus, with a dark centre. This variety, zeta of Giinther's 

 catalogue, prevails on the east of the Bay of Bengal, but I have 

 seen the ordinary spectacled form, though rarely, in Pegu. 

 Grows to 70 inches. 

 Inhabits the whole of Continental India and Ceylon, the 

 Lower Himalayas, Assam, Barmah, the Malayan Peninsula and 

 the larger Asiatic Islands. 



N. elaps, Schl. 



N. vittata, Elliott. 



Hamadryas ophiophagus and hannah. Cantor. 



Gnahn, of the Barmese. 



Subcaudals bifid, more generally the anterior ones single. 

 Occipitals surrounded by three pairs of large shields. One or 

 two prseoculars. Three postoculars. 



Colour during life of an adult female, olive brown with paler 

 cross bands deeply edged with black. Beneath white mottled 

 with black about tail. Throat yellow. This specimen had 9 

 caudal scuta and 83 scutella, and measured 147 inches. (Tail 26.) 



A young female of 78 inches was uniform brown, passing into 

 blackish on the hinder part of trunk and tail, with 40 pale 

 buffish bands, black-edged, conspicuous on the tail, faint on the 

 body and obsolete on the neck. Belly clouded with slaty. No 

 yellow on throat. Both specimens from Pegu. 



Giinther describes the colours as greenish or brownish olive 

 with numerous oblique alternate black and white bands con- 

 verging towards the head. Belly dark mottled, or uniform 

 black, with yellow throat and chin. Stoliczka thus describes 

 the young. J. A. S., 1870, p. 211:— Colour "pure jet black; the 

 snout, a band in front of the eyes, a third posterior to these 

 broken up into large spots ; a fourth across the posterior end of 

 the occipitals broken up into six spots, 32 narrow equidistant 



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