MORPHOLOGY OF VENOMOUS SNAKES 11 
Homalopsis buccata. 
Scales in 37 to 47 rows. Ventrals r60 to 171; anal divided; subcaudals 70 to 
go. Total length about 3 feet. Bengal (?), Burma, Indo-China, Malay Penin- 
sula, Sumatra, Borneo, Java. 
Genus CERBERUS Cuvier. 
Cerberus rhynchops and 2 other species. 
Genus HYPSIRHINA Wagler. 
Hypsirhina plumbea and 14 other species. 
Genus HIPISTES Gray. 
Hipistes hydrinus. 
Head covered with small scales, scales of body smooth, excepting the very nar- 
row ventrals, which have double keels. Body laterally compressed, resembling 
in general appearance the Hydrophine. It is piscivorous and swims far out into 
the sea. It inhabits Siam. 
Family COLUBRID Boulenger. 
PROTEROGLYPHA. 
Corresponds to Cope’s two superfamilies Proteroglypha and Platycerca and Stejneger’s Elapidz. 
This family contains all snakes with a permanently erect grooved poison fang 
in the anterior portion of the horizontal maxillary bone. Boulenger and Stejneger 
divide the members of this family into subfamilies Elapinee and Hydrophine.' 
As a rule, smaller, solid teeth are carried by the maxilla behind the grooved fangs. 
Shape of pupil variable, some being round, some vertical. Elaps and Acanthophis 
have vertical pupils, while the famous Cobra has a round one. Although their 
poison apparatus is inferior to that of Viperide in Boulenger’s term or Solenoglypha 
of the usual nomenclature, the Elapine snakes are the deadliest and often the most 
dangerous of all snakes.2 Their general appearance is not essentially different 
from that of most harmless colubrine snakes and the presence of the fang is the only 
reliable difference in these species. Most Proteroglypha are viviparous, but the 
famous cobra de capello and certain marine snakes are oviparous. Some are 
terrestrial, others marine. 
The Elapine snakes are tropical. The whole Australian, Paleotropical and 
Neotropical regions, with exception of Madagascar and New Zealand, are inhabited 
by them. They extend northward into the warmer parts of North Africa, and 
range over a great part of the Palearctic subregion, being found in North Africa 
and southwestern Asia. They also inhabit the southeastern Asiatic islands and 
mainland. 
Subfamily ELAPINZ Boulenger. 
All are terrestrial, and the general feature is that of the harmless colubrine snakes. 
The comparatively small eye with vertical pupil, frequent absence of loreal, and 
indistinctness in width of head and body are often of differential value in determin- 
ing the species, but the presence of the grooved fangs is the last and reliable criterion. 
The most remarkable feature of some of the Elapine snakes is that they can dilate 
certain cervical ribs, assuming a hood-like or fan-formed shape when the snakes 
are excited. This, together with the conditions of median dorsal scale rows and 
subcaudals, serves to divide them into several genera. According to Cope the 
presence or absence of a postfrontal bone draws the line between Naja and Elaps.* 
They live on small vertebrates: lizards, birds, rats, frogs, snakes, and occasionally 
1 Hydrine Stejneger. 
* The most dreaded species are Naja, Ophiphagus, and Bungarus in India, and Acanthophis and Pseu- 
dechis in Australia. They all possess very powerful venom and have courage and are often 
rapid im action. The Ophiphagus elaps of India reaches 12 feet and is the longest venomous 
snake. 
8 Cope gave them the rank of families, Najide and Elapide. 
