THE POISONOUS SJSAKES OF INDIA. 11 



The first essential point in the identification of a krait is to find the 

 enlarged vertebral row of scales. The enlargement is very obvious, and 

 without this the specimen cannot be a krait. Unfortunately, however, 

 for our purpose this distinction is not absolutely confined to the kraits, 

 since a few harmless snakes are similarly distinguished, viz., the genera 

 Dipsadomorplius, Dendrophis, and Dendrelaphis, some species of 

 Amhhjcephalus, Xenelaphis hexagonotus, and Elachhtodon loestermanni, 

 and it is due to this fact that other supplementary characters are neces- 

 sary to formulate a rigid rule. 



Supplementary generic characters. — Other important characters to be 

 observed in the scale arrangement of kraits, but not necessarily peculiar 

 to them, are as follows: — The nasal shield touches the 1st and 2nd 

 supralabials but never the ord. Loreal absent, so that only two 

 scales intervene between the eye and the nostril. Te7nporalj a single 

 shield touching the 5th and 6th supralabials. Supralabials 7, the 3rd 

 and 4th touching the eye. Posterior Sublinguals touch the 4th infra- 

 labial shield (rarely 3rd also). The 4th infralabial is the largest of the 

 series, and touches only 2 scales behind. The costals are the same 

 number in the whole length of the body, except in some specimens of 

 sindanus and walli. Anal entire. Subcaudals entire throughout, or in 

 some species only at the base, the remaining shields being divided. The 

 iris is black in all species except B. fasciatus, in which the pupillary 

 edge is thinly margined golden, and the pupil which is round in form is 

 only discernible during life in this one species. 



The shields on the heads of all kraits are so closely similar in number 

 and form that with the exception of the 2nd supralabial they are 

 of no assistance in separating the eight species. The numbers of 

 row^ of scales over the back, however, vary from 13 to 19, and the 

 vertebral row varies in breadth in some of the species. The colour, 

 too, is very distinctive in all the species, and habitat is of great impor- 

 tance. 



11 of the 12 known members of the genus occur within our Indian 

 limits. Two are common, viz,, Bungarus cceruleus and B. fasciatus 

 but the rest are local and uncommon, some being specially rare. 



