INTRODUCTION 
The snakes of Burma are probably the least-known of the 
snake faunas in any of the countries of southeastern Asia. 
The last comprehensive work on the reptiles was that 
included in Smith's (1943) work in the "Fauna of British 
India" series, which was written in the 1930's and delayed 
by World War II. Prior to this work, its fauna was known by 
a few scattered papers by Frank Wall and others, and by 
inclusion in the major regional works by Guenther (1864), 
Theobald (1876), and Boulenger (1890). Only Theobald (1868) 
has provided an individual catalogue of the reptiles of this 
country. 
Little additional systematic work has been done on 
Burmese snakes since the British left the country in 1948; 
actually little has been done since the 1920's. Few 
specimens have been reported since Wall's (1925, 1926) final 
series of papers. An important collection made by Ronald 
Kaulback in 1937-39 in the "Triangle" country of 
northernmost Burma (26°N, 98° E; not the "Golden Triangle," 
21°N, 100°E) was reported by Smith (1940), and small 
collections made on Mt. Victoria and Mt. Popa by Gerd 
Heinrich were reported by Shreve (1940). Only a few 
scattered specimens have made their way into museum 
collections since that time. The mimeographed list of 
Burmese snakes prepared by the Burmese Department of 
Forestries (Hundley, 1964), was merely an abstract from 
Smith (1943). 
The following list was originally prepared (1983) from 
Malcolm Smith's "Serpentes" volume (1943) in the "Fauna of 
British India" series, with some additions, and those 
changes in nomenclature necessitated by more recent 
publications. 
Our recent trips to Burma and India (1984, 1985, 1986, 
1987) have allowed us to add to this list and to make some 
corrections. We have examined most of the Burmese specimens 
in the collections of the Bombay Natural History Society, 
Bombay (BNHS), and the Zoological Survey of India at 
Calcutta (ZSIC). We also have examined the collection of 
the U. S. National Museum of Natural History (USNM), and 
recently have received a list of Burmese specimens found in 
the British Museum (Natural History) (BMNH). Other 
specimens have been located at the California Academy of 
Sciences, San Francisco (CAS), the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology, Harvard University (MCZ), the Naturhistorisches 
Museum, Vienna (NMW), the University of Michigan Museum of 
Zoology, Ann Arbor (UMMZ), and the Zoological Museum, 
Hamburg, Germany (ZMH). We do not suggest that this is a 
comprehensive list. 
