NAJA OPHIOPHAGUS. 55 
frequents towns and cities, and the Keautiah, a snake of the 
fields or jungle, that the poison of the latter is thinner, and 
therefore kills quicker, and that of the former thicker, and 
though slower to take effect, none the less deadly. Both 
kinds incubate ; as the snakemen affirm to digging them out of 
holes frequently, in which they are found covering their eggs. 
Smith gives the following varieties of this genus occurring 
in South Africa, viz.: 
No. 40. Naja haje (Spugh Schlange). 
No. 41. “  lemnascatus. 
No. 42. “ naia angusticeps. 
No. 40, or the Spew snake, is said to make a prolonged 
blow and a hissing sound, thus ejecting its poison to a consid- 
erable distance. This is one of the most aggressive varieties 
of Ophidians. 
One specimen in the collection of the Zoological Society of 
London is so absolutely untamable that, after two years’ con- 
finement in its cage, it flies at any one who approaches too 
near it. 
NAJA OPHIOPHAGUS. 
The Naja ophiophagus (Hamadryad) is the only species 
given, called Sunkerchor (or shell-breaker) ; in Orissa, Ai-raz. 
Naja bungarus, Schlegel. 
“¢ ~ elaps, - 
“¢  -vittata, Elliott. 
Hamadryus ophiophagus, Cantor. 
Trimeresurus ophiophagus, Dum. and Bibr. 
Hamadryas elaps, Giinther. 
One of the largest and most formidable venomous snakes 
known.* 
* Waterton, in his Wanderings, mentions a Vip. snake, named Lach- 
mutus, found in British Guiana, and called the Bushmaster, or Curucucu, 
