246 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



that they escape notice unless specially looked for, and even then are often but 

 obscurely visible or suggested. In Almora again the prevalent cobra is a black 

 one. Just as in the Fyzabad specimens I find some with perfect spectacles, some 

 with disintegrated spectacles, and some with no trace of a mark. Mr. Mackinnon 

 some years ago told me all the cobras in the Dun were black, and without 

 spectacles, but while I was in Mussoorie he sent me one from the Dun on which I 

 found a very perfect and distinct spectacle. Colonel Bannerman sent me specimen 

 of a black cobra with no hood marks from the Central Provinces All his first 

 specimens, I discovered, showed obscure but unmistakable indications of a dis- 

 integrated spectacle, and he had some trouble to eventually find a specimen without 

 any mark at all on the hood. Major 0. A. Smith told me the common cobra in 

 Multan is a black one with no hood marks. One that he sent me however had a 

 very perfect " spectacle." From this it appears to me conclusive that the form 

 " cceca " does not deserve recognition as a variety apart from " typica," and only a 

 few deserve the name " cceca " as hitherto understood, many being typically 

 spectacled, and a host of intermediate forms cannot be placed in either category, 

 (i.e., cacea or typica as previously defined). 



The only form I saw in Chitral where it was common was the oxiana of Eichwald. 

 One specimen however was uniformly blackish instead of being an olivaceous-brown 

 with darker cross bars anteriorly, breaking up later into an irregular variegation. This 

 specimen however accorded well with the ranges of ventrals and subcaudals found 

 peculiar to variety oxiana, and not with those characteristic of the black Indian 

 form called cceca, which it so closely resembled. Similarly a specimen from Duki, N. 

 Baluchistan without any trace of dark cross bars anteriorly showed a range of 

 ventrals and subcaudals typical of oxiana, and not of the Indian forms, and this 

 should thus, I hold, be classed as an aberrant colour variety of oxiana. 



Mr. Boulenger arranges the varieties as follows : — 



" A. — Forma Typica (G. na/ja, L. ; N. lutescens, fasciata, bmsili- 

 ensis, siamensis, Laur.; G. rufus, Gmel.). — Yellowish to dark brown 

 above, with black-and-white spectacle-mark on the hood and a 

 black-and-white spot on each side of the lower surface of the 

 hood. 25 to 85 scales across the neck, 23 to 25 across the 

 middle of the body. 



(«) One or two dark brown cross-bands on the belly behind 



the hood. 

 (J>) Body variegated with darker, and lighter ; belly with 

 several dark cross-bands which may extend across the 

 back. 



B. — Var. C.ECA (IV. non-naja, Laur.; G. coecus, Gmel. ; T. oxiana, 

 Eichw.). — Uniform pale brown or grey to blackish ; no marking 

 on the hood ; one or more dark cross-bands on the anterior 

 part of the belly; young sometimes with dark rings. 25-31 

 scales across the back, 21-25 across the middle of the body. 



C. — Var. Fasciata, Graj- (IV. haouthia, Less. ; IV. larvata, Cant.: 

 var. scopinucha, Cope). — Brown, olive, or blackish above, often with 

 more or less distinct light, black-edged cross-bars ; hood with a 

 whitish, black edged ring or U, or with a mask-shaped figure ; 

 a black spot on each side under the hood. 25-31 scales across 

 the neck, 19 to 21 across the middle of the bod}-. 



(a) Body dai'k brown behind, with light variegations; two 

 to four blackish cross-bars under the anterior part of 

 the body. 

 (b ) Olive to blackish above, the skin between the scales black • 



