THE CO LU BRINE SNAKES 2585 



of the back larger than the others. The head resembles that of the last genus in 

 being imperfectly distinguished from the neck, as well as in the size and number of 

 its shields; the small eye has a similar round pupil. The tail is of moderate length, 

 or short, with the shields on its lower surface arranged in either a double or single 

 series. The banded adder (B. fasciatris} belongs to a group in which the shields on 

 the lower surface of the body are very large, and broader than long, those of the 

 tail being arranged in a single series. The species is distinguished by the presence 

 of a distinct ridge along the back, by the obtuse extremity of the tail, and by the 

 front temporal shield of the head being scarcely longer than deep; these three fea- 

 tures distinguish it from the blue adder or crait (B. c&ruleus) and the nearly-allied 

 Ceylon crait (B. ceylonicus}. The banded adder, or raj samp (king snake), ranges 

 from Bengal to Java, and commonly measures about four feet in length, although 

 it grows to six feet. In color it is bright yellow, with black rings equal to or ex- 

 ceeding in length the light interspaces; on the head a black band commences be- 

 tween the eyes and widens toward the nape of the neck ; the tip of the muzzle being 

 brown. The crait is of a dark, almost steel-blue black, or chocolate-brown, color, 

 with narrow white crossbars, streaks or rings of white; the under surface being of 

 a dark livid hue, or whitish or yellowish. It inhabits the whole of India, but is not 

 so large as the raj samp, which is probably as poisonous, though it does not come 

 much into contact with human beings, and is, therefore, a less terrible destroyer of 

 life. The crait frequently insinuates itself into houses, where it conceals itself in 

 bathrooms, verandas, cupboards, or between the bars of shutters; and an instance is 

 on record where one was discovered coiled up beneath the pillow of a palki in which a 

 lady had made a night's journey. Next to the cobra, the crait is credited with kill- 

 ing more human beings in India than any other snake. 



The name " cobra de capello" or hooded snake was applied by the 

 Cobras . . J _. 



Portuguese in Ceylon to the common Indian representative of a genus 



of deadly serpents distinguished from the craits by their power of inflating the neck, 

 and likewise by the scales in the middle of the back not being larger than the rest. 

 By Europeans these snakes are now generally known by the name of cobras. 

 Agreeing with the craits in having the fangs furnished with a complete groove on 

 the front surface, and likewise by the presence of from one to three solid teeth be- 

 hind them, the cobras have the head distinct from the neck, and covered with 

 large shields, among which the loreal is wanting; the eye being rather small, with 

 a round pupil. The body is cylindrical, with the smooth scales disposed in fifteen 

 or more oblique rows; the tail is of moderate length, with its inferior shields in 

 either a single or a double series. The dilatation of the neck, which always takes 

 place when they are excited and about to strike, at once serves to distinguish the 

 cobras from all other snakes. Cobras are confined to Africa and Southern Asia, 

 and are represented by six or seven species, two of which are found in India, and a 

 third in Java and Borneo, the others being African. Of the Indian forms, by far 

 the most abundant is the common or true cobra (Naia tripudians} , which is known 

 to the natives of India as the kala nag or kala samp (black snake). Distinguished 

 by having no large shields on the head behind the parietals, and by the whole of 

 the shields on the under surface of the tail being arranged in a double series, this 



