50 ELAPS FULVIUS. 
Description. The head is short, thick, and stout, rounded in front and not 
distinct from the body. The vertical plate is pentagonal, broadest in front, and 
pointed behind; the superior orbital are regularly quadrilateral, and do not project 
externally over the eye; the occipital plates are large and irregularly oblong; the 
frontal are pentagonal, broadest internally, narrow and pointed outwards and 
downwards; the anterior frontal are irregularly quadrilateral, broadest internally; 
the rostral plate is trigonal, broadest below, narrowed and rounded above. There 
are two nasal plates, the anterior quadrilateral, the posterior triangular, the former 
concave behind, the latter concave before, to complete the nostril; there is one 
very large and irregularly quadrilateral anterior orbital, and two small posterior 
orbital plates, rounded and nearly of the same size; back of these are two or three 
large temporal plates; the upper jaw is covered with seven quadrilateral labial 
plates, the largest bemg behind, and the third and fourth forming the lower part of 
the orbit of the eye. The nostrils are lateral and near the snout; the eyes are 
‘small but prominent, the pupil dark, the iris reddish-grey. The neck is the same 
size as the head; the body is greatly elongated and nearly cylindrical, becoming 
suddenly smaller at the tail, which is short, small and pointed. 
Cotour. The head is black in front, with a bright yellow band at the occiput, 
running forwards and downwards under the lower jaw, narrower above and 
broader below. The ground-colour of the body above, as well as below, is jet 
black, surrounded by about seventeen crimson rings, each with a yellow border 
both anteriorly and posteriorly, and each with two or three black spots on the 
abdomen. The tail is black, with three or four yellow rings; the tip is yellow. 
Dimenstons. Length of head, 7 lines; greatest breadth of head, 5 lines; length 
of body, 20 inches. In the specimen described, there were 212 abdominal plates, 
and 32 pair of sub-caudal scales or bifid plates. 
Hasirs. They are found, in common with the Coluber coccineus, living under 
ground in the fields where the sweet potato (Convolvulus batatas) is cultivated; 
and are frequently dug up by the labourers when harvesting the potatoes in 
