48 



quite easy to remember sufficient to be able to say definitely 

 whether any given snake is poisonous or not. 



The first thing to do is to place the unknown snake into 

 one of the four groups mentioned in Chapter V. Look first 

 at the belly. If there are no ventrals, or only narrow 

 ventrals, the snake falls into Groups I or II, resj)ectively, and 

 all snakes in these two groups are harmless. 



But suppose the specimen has broad ventrals. The 

 next thing to do is to inspect the head. If (with broad 

 ventrals) the head is scaly the snake falls into Group IV and 

 all snakes in Group IV are poisonous, for they are all vipers 

 of sorts. 



If, so far, we have not placed our snake, it is one with 

 broad ventrals and a shielded head and falls into Group III. 

 It may be either poisonous or non-poisonous. 



But in Group III there are only two poisonous snakes 

 which are at all common. 



These two are the Cobra and the Krait. 



There will not be much difficulty in saying whether 

 the specimen is a cobra. A big snake, four or five feet long, 

 with its characteristically marked hood it is one of the easiest 

 snakes to tell. If in any doubt, examine the scales in the 

 upper lip. The third supra-lahial scale touches the nasal 

 shield and the eye. (Fig. 11.) No harmless snake has this 

 feature. 



If not a cobra, is the specimen a krait ? We must.be care- 

 ful in answering this question, as there is a tendency to call 

 all small snakes kraits. But kraits are not very small except 

 when young. The Indian krait is usually about 2 to 3 feet in 

 length, but it may gro\Y to 4 feet or more while the Banded 

 or Burman krait may reach nearly to 6 feet. 



To spot a krait the first thing to do (after placing the 

 specimen in Group HI) is to look at the vertebral row of 

 ficales, ^.e., the row along the middle of the back. In the 



