ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 935 



are usually rather broader especially in front, and number from 1G 

 to 27 on the body, and 2 to 5 on the tail.* On the nape is a large, 

 elongate, black patch rounded behind, and ogival in front where it 

 reaches the frontal shield, and this does not extend on to the belly. 

 On the top of the head there is a large yellow V, the arms of 

 which diverge backwards and pass over the temples to the throat- 

 Except the lips and lore which are yellow, the rest of the crown is 

 black. The chin and throat are yellow. 



Dimensions. — It grows to 6 feet, but specimens over 5 feet are 

 exceptional. I had one of 5 feet 3 inches in Berhampore (Orissa) 

 and Evans and I had one 5 feet 9 inches in Rangoon. Vincent 

 Richardsf records one G feet long, Talbot Kelly in his book on 

 Burma ('1 905, p. 110) mentions one just over G feet, and Major 

 Leventon, I.M.S., told me of a large gravid 5 he saw at Sibsagar 

 in Assam that measured 6 feet 1^ inches. Fayrer J says on the 

 authority of Mason that it grows to 8 feet, but I very much 

 suspect there was some guess work in this estimate. I have had 

 over 50 specimens from Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Burma and China. 



Identification. — Though the colour and banding is so distinctive 

 those who trust to these onl} r may be deceived by the similarity in 

 this respect shown by some specimens of the harmless snake 

 Lycodon fasciatus. It is best in this instance as in every other 

 to identify your snake by scale characters. The enlarged verte- 

 brals, and entire subcaudals will proclaim the snake a Krait for 

 certain, and the ridged spine, blunt tail or the yellow bands will 

 distinguish this from all the other kraits. 



Haunts. — It is usually found in open tracts of country, grass 

 land, crops, or low sparse jungle but not, I think, so much in dense 

 jungle. It is no infrequent visitor or inhabitant of Cantonments, 

 and is often to be encountered in well populated localities, getting 

 into the bazaars, native huts, and Cantonment houses. In my 

 early Indian days the rustling of something, one night across the 

 mat in a dak bungalow proved when a lantern had been lit to 

 have proceeded from a large banded krait in the room which was 



* In a specimen I killed in Hongkong there was a large black blotch ventrally 

 in many of the yellow bands. 



f Landmarks of snake poison, p. 5. % Thanatophidia, p. 11. 



