BD en GrAck: U's. 
Giinther’s description of this genus is given below. 
“ Body rather elongate ; tail comparatively short ; head more or less 
dilated, depressed, with broad, rounded muzzle ; scarcely distinct from 
neck, which is not dilatable. Eye small, with round pupil. Rostral 
shield broader than high, reaching to upper part of snout ; anterior 
frontals half the size of the posterior; vertical five-sided ; occipitals 
tapering behind. Nostril rather wide between two nasals. Loreal 
none ; one pre-, two post-oculars. Seven upper labials, the third and 
fourth entering the orbit. Scales smooth, moderately imbricate, dis- 
posed in oblique rows, forming fifteen longitudinal series round the 
body ; those of the vertebral series are very broad hexagonal. Ventrals 
between 200 and 250; anal and sub-caudals entire. Scales without 
apicial groove. Maxillary bone with a fang in front; a second small 
simple tooth at some distance behind the fang.” 
“The Bungarums,” says Sir Joseph Fayrer, “are diurnal terrestrial 
snakes, but like others, they generally prefer the shade to the sunshine. 
They are found in the open country, in grass and low jungle, and in 
fields. They live in holes in the ground, sometimes down among the 
roots of trees at a considerable depth. They are not frequently seen in 
inhabited places, though they do at times find their way into huts and 
houses. I killed a very large one in Rangoon many years ago that got 
into a hut full of Dhoolie bearers at the field hospital during the last 
Burmese war. They feed on small animals, snakes, frogs, toads, lizards, 
and they are very poisonous ; but owing to the shortness of their fang, 
which is much smaller than that of the cobra, their bite is less dangerous, 
and excision being more practicable, treatment may be useful and 
recoveries more numerous.” 
D 
