BY GERARD KREFFT. 55 



bitten, professing that they possess an antidote against the 

 poison ; generally speaking, these persons are more or less 

 impostors ; they break off the fangs of the snake, but do not know- 

 bow soon they are reproduced, and thus frequently fall victims 

 to their ignorance. The Indian jugglers have more sense, and 

 entirely remove the teeth, as most of the specimens of Naja 

 tripndians prove which are received from India. 



The young of this snake, from 15 to 20 in number, are 

 generally observed about the end of February ; they are then 

 from 7 to 8 inches long, and subsist on small frogs, lizards, or 

 insects. During the cold season this snake retires into the 

 ground, as I have never met with half-grown or adult specimens 

 under stones. 



PETROPYMOV. Krc/t. 



PETKODYMON CUCULLATUS. 



Red-bellied Si^e. 



Scales in 15 rows. 

 Anal 1/1. 

 Ventrals 187. 

 Subcaudals 41,41. 



Purplish brown above, with a series of darker longitudinal 

 lines along the upper part of the body, leaving a light elongate 

 mark in the middle of each scale. Beneath yellow, bright red 

 in adult specimens, each ventral plate clouded on the upper edge 

 with purplish brown, much interrupted on the posterior part of 

 the body. Divisional line of subcaudal plates marked in a 

 similar manner, leaving the outer edges of the plates yellowish. 

 Upper part of head purplish brown as far as the middle of 

 posterior frontals, covering the vertical part of superciliaries, and 

 reaching beyond the occipitals ; this elliptical spot is joined to 

 the back by a narrow band of the same colour running along the 

 median line of the neck. A light-greyish band encircles the 

 dark-brown mark, divided by the narrow line by which this mark 

 is joined to the back. Upper and lower labials dotted with 

 brown spots. Body rounded, head rather flat, depressed ; tail 



