Isotely and Coralsnakes. 19 



important fact tliat Elapoid dress occurs in about two dozen poisonous 

 species against as many harmless species ; or 20 against 25 if we reject 

 the less conspicuoiis. To make tliese statistics yield any usefiü 

 results we have to restrict them to the various geographica! uiiits. 



In Africa we have one or two cases amongst the Elapines and 

 none amongst the harmless snakes. 



In Australia, which is swarming with Elapines, which there 

 actually form the majority of snakes, we have only Furina occipüalis 

 (Psetidechis is a still weaker case) and no harmless kinds with such 

 colours. 



In Indian and Malay countries are the Elapine Callophis and 

 DoUophis against Cylindrophis and Bhinophis, all of them conspicuously 

 coloured. Some specimens of Callophis macdellandi assume exactly 

 the typical dress of Elaps fuMus, but Callophis ranges from Nepal 

 (where it is sombre) and Assam to China, and nowhere does it 

 approach the ränge of the Uropeltids; but Cylindrophis rufus and 

 DoUophis may meet, and this would be the only instance of Elapine 

 mimicry in the Old World. 



A very different aspect prevails in America. From Maryland 

 and California to Argentina scarcely a State is without some snake 

 which does not show the striking dress of Coralsnakes. First there 

 is Elaps itself, a typical and characteristic American genus with 

 almost the same enormous ränge. Secondly there are 4 opisthogly- 

 phous and 8 aglyphous genera, about 20 species of which greatly 

 resemble one or more of the 18 — 20 conspicuously coloured species 

 of Elaps. If put in this way, with the addition that two of the 

 commonest species, Elaps fidvius and Coronella microphoUs, both ränge 

 from the Southern United States into South America, that they 

 offen appear in the identical complicated dress, and lastly that 

 where these species give way, others, e. g. Elaps coraUinus and 

 Erythrolamprus aescidapü, take up the resemblance — the case for 

 mimicry would seem to be well established. And yet it would be 

 based upon an insiduously misleading mode of stating the case. 



It is a true generalisation that in every country where the 

 conspicuous dress is worn by some Elaps, it also occurs in some other 

 snakes; but the reverse is not true. 



Let US now examine Mexico. It possesses only the widely 

 spread Elaps fidvius with its abundant varieties in dress, and where 

 this species gives way in the North West it is represented by E. 

 euryxanthus, called thus because the yellow between the red and 



2* 



