DISTRIBUTION OF VARIETIES OF COBRAS IN INDIA. 641 



Captain Wall reports 3 specimens all light coloured and one with 

 7-8 leaden dorsal bands, got by himself in the Swat Valley, and two 

 more from Thayetmyo and Meiktila in Burma. 



Probably most of Captain Mackie's specimens were of this variety, 

 though he did not examine the first lot of 45 with special reference to 

 this point, as we found this the case among the black cobras received 

 from the neighbouring Central Provinces. 



C. — Naia tvipudians, var. fasciata. — This variety seems absolutely 

 confined to Bengal and Burma, where it largely takes the place of 

 typica. Nicholson, however (p. 106), notes its presence in the Central 

 Provinces also. 



Of the 169 cobras received from Bengal, 86 were of this variety, and 

 from Captain Wall's report it would appear that the further east one 

 goes, the more common does fasciata become. Thus he says that out of 

 36 specimens collected by him in Burma, mostly near Rangoon, 33 were 

 monocellate. Again, he says that all the specimens seen by him in 

 Chinese Museums '' from the Yangtse Valley and further north " and 

 " from Hongkong and thereabouts" were fasciata with one exception, 

 and that was a sputatriv, a variety which has not yet been found in India. 



To sum up, it would appear that typica may be looked for in any 

 part of India, more rarely in Burma and still more rarely in China. 

 Caeca is the common cobra of the west part of the Central Provinces 

 and Central India, and has been found also along the frontiers, from 

 Afghanistan, Grilgit, Swat to Sikkim. Fasciata is eminently the Bengal 

 cobra, and appears also to be the variety commonly found to the east 

 thereof, in Burma and China. 



The above account of the distribution of the varieties of cobra is 

 interesting and worth continuing and enlarging, and I trust the publica- 

 tion of this paper in the Journal may induce members in all parts of 

 India to send notes of the cobras found by them. 



What is the meaning of this distribution ? Why should one part of 

 the country produce spectacled cobras and another ringed ones ? 



Another curious poiut raised by this collection of statistics has rela- 

 tion to the body colour of the cobras. 



Without exception, all the ccecas received from the Central Pro- 

 vinces are black, while all 'the cobras received from the Madras and 

 Bombay Presidencies are yellow or olive coloured, or a variation 

 between these two shades. 



