232 SOME SOI ill INDIAN INSECTS, ETC. CHAP. XXIII. 



The mere fact tint some snakes arc venomous renders them of 

 great direct importance to an agricultural population which walks 

 about barefooted in the fields and the discrimination of the 

 poisonous species is frequently necessary in rases of snake-bite. 

 A few species, such as the Cobra and Russell's Viper, may be 

 well-known, but to the ordinary man one snake is much the 

 same as another and all are poisonous. Then- are, however, lew 

 venomous snakes which are at all common in Southern India and 

 their identification is comparatively easy. The only ones which 

 need be noticed here are the Krait. Cobra, King Cobra or 

 Hamadryad, Echis and Russell's Viper. The Pit-vipers, so called 

 from the curious pit-like depression in the head between each 

 nostril and eye, are common in the Hills, the green species being 

 frequently found on coffee-bushes; they are all poisonous, but 

 rarely or never fatal. 



The Krait (Bungarus candidus) is quite a common snake but 

 seldom seen, as it lives a retired life in chinks and cracks of old 

 walls and similar situations, only venturing abroad at night. It 

 feeds solely on other snakes and is ol a sluggish, peaceful disposi- 

 tion and loath to bite as a rule although the poison is twice or 

 thrice as virulent as cobra venom and death has been known to 

 occur in less than six hours after a bite from a specimen only 

 18 inches long. In colour it is of ;i glistening black, with 

 paired white lines or narrow bands across the back, these white 

 markings being less evident towards the head. The vertebrals, or 

 row of scales along the middle of the back, are hexagonal (six 

 sided) and greatly enlarged, at least twice as large as the other body- 

 scales, and the subcaudals, or stales beneath the tail, are single 

 (i.e., not divided along the middle line to form two rows). If 

 attention is paid to these points, there should be no difficulty in 

 identifying a specimen as a krait; but it may be observed that 

 there is no snake in India for which the ordinary man is more 

 liable to mistake a harmless species, such as Lycodon aulicus, merely 

 because the general shape and colour-pattern are similar. It may 

 be noted, however, that in Lycodon and other harmless snakes the 

 white cross-bands arc more evident behind the head and fade awaj 

 posteriorly, whilst the opposite is seen in the krait; in Lycodon and 

 similar snakes also the vertebral scales are not enlarged. 



The Cobra (Naja naja; tripudians of the "Fauna" volume 

 and authors generally) is usually easily recognisable in lift' by 

 the characteristic "hood," on which the markings are usually 

 binocellate (two-ej ed, spectacle-like), sometime- monocellate (single- 

 eyed, O-shaped), rarely absent. In dead specimens, however, in 

 which the hood is shrunk and the markings obliterated, this 



