20 THE POISONOUS SNAKES OF INDIA. 



Poison. — Nothing knovffn. 



Dimensions. — My largest specimen was 4 feet and half an inch. 



Colour. — Uniform black above. Belly white with more or less dark 

 mottling at the base of the posterior ventrals and sub-candals. 



li' ) BTJNGASUS OEYLONIOTJS -Tho Ceylon Krait or Earawala.' 



Identification. — The bands are complete. It is the Common Krait 

 of Ceylon. 



Supplementary eharacters. — The vertebral row is unusually large, 

 the breadth of the scales considerably exceeds the length, and in this 

 respect it almost compares with B.fasciatus. 



Distribution, — Peculiar to Ceylon. 



Poison. — The only cases of bites from this snake known to me are 

 reported by Mr. E. E. Green (Spol. Zeylan. April 1908, p. 103) and 

 Dr. Willey (Spol Zeylan. April 1906, p. 228). In the former record 

 a cooly was bitten in the left foot at 4 a.m. At 5-30 a.m. he was 

 sleepy and drowsiness increased till 10 a. m. When dosed with whisky 

 shortly afterwards swallowing was difficult and vomiting ensued. He 

 walked about till his legs refused to move. At 2 p.m. he was feverish 

 and insensible antl he died at 4 p.m. 



In Dr. Willey's case a Malay woman bitten in Colombo succumbed 

 within 12 hours. 



Dimensions, — Grows to 8 feet and over. 



Colour.— Glistening black with white cross bars. 



f^ ^TTITaAEUS CiSBEULEXTS.— The Common Erait. 



(Synonym — B. arcuatus.) 



The "Karait" and " Dhomum chitti " or ''chitti" of Bengal. 



''Valla pamboo'' of Malabar. " Katto virian'' and "Anali" of 



Madras. The ''GoJi nS,gera" of Mysore according to Rice, and the 



" Gedi paragoodoo " and **' Pakta Poola " of the Coromandel Coast 



(Russell). 



* Gunther and other Authors have wrongly used this as the Singhalese name for 

 A'ncistrodoH ht/pmtle. Ferguson, Willey, and others have, however, shown this a mistake. 



