1913.1 



NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 



509 



rows on the neck and nineteen on the body, the gastrosteges one 

 hundred sixty-nine, the urosteges fifty, and the total two hundred 

 nineteen. 



In the Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum there is a full 

 page of synonymy for Naja tripudians, followed by the remark: 

 "This species, as here understood, varies very considerably, and the 

 forms enumerated hereafter might be regarded as distinct species but 

 for the absence of any sharp demarcation-lines between them." 

 Instead of this serving as an object lesson of the futility of the en- 

 deavor to divide a complex and variable species such as the cobra 

 into endless subspecies, labor is still being expended. 



The present vogue is to arrange the cobras in an arithmetical series, 

 calculated from the number of ventral and subcaudal shields or from 

 the sum of both. Where a gap in the series is discovered (which gap 

 is regularly due to lack of sufficient material) , there to boldly draw a 

 line between this and that subspecies. On one occasion no demarca- 

 tion-lines whatever were needed to reestablish a subspecies. We 

 learn * that the variety leucodira comes from Sumatra and sputatrix 

 from Java. The distinguishing characters of the two are presented 

 in tabular form: 



In other words, this table shows: 



Sumatran specimens to be characterized by having at times two 

 scale rows less on the neck, two less on the body, ten more gas- 

 trosteges, and two more urosteges than some Javan specimens. 



Javan specimens to be distinguishable bj^ occasionally having two 

 more scale rows on the body, eleven gastrosteges less, and two uro- 

 steges less than some Sumatran specimens. 



As a matter of fact, when two groups of animals require to be defined 

 in terms of this nature, it really means that they belong to the same 

 species, and that the only tangible difference between them is to be 

 found on the locality label. 

 Walterinnesia aegyptica Lataste. 



Type. — Naja morgani Mocquard.^ 



Mus. d'Hist. Nat., No. 04-562. Arabistan, Persia. 



n912, Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool, Vol. XLIV, No. 1, pp. 135, 136. 

 5 190.5, Bull. Mm. Paris, XI, p. 78. 



