640 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



results as regards the Madras Presidency. He also reports one out of 

 36 specimens from Burma. 



Capt. P. Mackie, I.M.S., reports from Goona : — 



'• In 1904, 45 cobras were examined. They were all quite black in 

 colour. No light one was ever seen. Only a few were examined for 

 ocelli and of all those examined none were found shewing taat marking. 



" Up to the present date in 1905, 32 more cobras were examined and 

 particular attention was paid to the presence or absence of ocellate 

 markings. All the cobras except two were quite black and possessed, no 

 marks on the hood. Two small ones were seen, one of a light khaki 

 colour with well marked. ' spectacles ' and another cobra about 2^ feet 

 long of a dark greyish colour with very well marked ocelli and another 

 pair of subsidiary round ocelli below at the base of the hood. (This 

 specimen is at the Parel Laboratory.) These black cobras of Goona 

 tend to run to a large size and about 10 per cent, were over 5 feet 

 5 inches long. 



'• The ground soil of Goona is of two kinds. On the lower ground in 

 the valleys and on the cultivated land ' black cotton ' soil is prevalent 

 lying on a basis of red laterite. This laterite crops up on the higher 

 ground and here is not covered with soil. Nearly all the cobras were 

 caught within a short distance of cantonments and nearly all on the 

 black cotton soil. The two light cobras were also caught on black 

 cotton soil." 



Among the black cobras we received, from Saugor, there were a few 

 with spectacles, and this seems to show that there is a variety of 

 spectacled black cobra in the West of the Central Provinces and probab- 

 ly also in Central India. 



Captain Wall reports 10 specimens caught at Fyzabad, U- P., of 

 which 7 were black or plumbeous — black with binocellate markings ; 

 1 was anocellate black, and 2 were light coloured with markings of 

 such a peculiar nature that he found it impossible to place them in 

 either ihe binocellate or monocellato group. 



B. — Naia tripudians, var. cceca. — This variety, which is almost 

 invariably black, seems to have a much more restricted range than 

 typica. With the exception of nine, the whole of the 629 specimens 

 received came from the Central Provinces. 



The nine exceptions were received from Bengal (3), United Pro- 

 vinces (5), and Punjab (1). 



