EEPTILIA. 263 



Sp. Sepedon hcemachates MERR., FITZ., DUM. and BIBR., SEBA Thesaur. 11. 

 Tab. 58, figs, i 3, LAC. Quadrup. ovip. et Serp. II. PI. 3, fig. i; habitat 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



Naja LAUR. Head flat above, with eyes lateral. Posterior 

 ocular scutes three. Frenal scutes none. Anterior part of trunk 

 behind the head expansible into an oval depressed disc. Scales 

 smooth. Subcaudal scutes paired. 



All the species of this genus are from the eastern hemisphere. They 

 have, without exception, smooth scales, which are very large and lancet- 

 shaped. That this genus belongs to the present division was, as I suppose, 

 first shewn by SCHLEGEL ; I find, besides the poison-tooth, only a single 

 small tooth in the cranium examined by me, at some distance from it at the 

 posterior extremity of the short upper jaw-bone. The anterior ribs (about 

 20 pairs) lie flat, i. e. they do not bend downwards, and increase in length 

 to the tenth or eleventh pair, after which they become gradually shorter. 

 When these ribs are drawn forwards an oval expansion is caused, 

 surpassing the head in breadth, which characterises most of the species of 

 this genus, but not all in an equal degree 1 . The name of spectacle- snake, 

 serpent a lunettes, is borrowed from two eye-like spots on the disciform 

 expansion of the back, which are connected by a black streak curved 

 forwards, a mark, however, which occurs only in one species. This is Naja 

 tripudians MERR., Coluber Naja L., Aspis Naja WAGL., LINN. Mus. AdolpTi. 

 Frid. Tab. 21, fig. i, SEBA TJies. n. Tab. 90, fig. 2, (and less good in dif- 

 ferent figures of that great work), Cuv. R. Ani., ed. ill., Rept. PI. 34; in 

 Bengal. Naja haje MERR., Coluber Haje L., Urceus Haje WAGL. ; in 

 Egypt ; brownish, head of a lighter colour with a dark ring round the eye, 

 which at the margin of the upper jaw terminates in a small spot. On 

 this species the so-called serpent-charmers in Egypt, as on the preceding 

 in India, exercise their art. The KoperTcapel (Cobra di Capello) of the 

 Dutch Colonists is a variety of the same species. 



Caucus WAGL., DUM. and BIBR. (Species of Naja BOIE, 

 SCHLEG.) Teeth in upper jaw besides the poison-tooth none. 

 Frenal scute small. Dorsal scales subcarinate. Kemaining cha- 

 racters almost those of the preceding genus. 



Sp. Causus rkombeatus WAGL. ; Vipera V nigrum Cuv., Sepedon rhombeatus 

 LICHTENST., SCHLEGEL Phys. d. Serp. PL 17, figs. 12, 13 (head); coast of 

 Guinea, Cape of Good Hope. 



Dendroaspis FiTZ. (Trimeresurus DUM., BlBR., add Alecto 

 eorumd.) Some small solid teeth in upper jaw behind the poison- 

 tooth. Posterior ocular scutes two or three ; frenal scute none. 



1 Compare HOME Philos. Transact, for 1804, pp. 346 and foil. 



