222 SNAKES. 



deep ; these three features distinguish it from the blue adder or crait {B. cceraleus) 

 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 4 feet 

 in length, although it grows to 6 feet. In colour it is bright yellow, with 

 black rings equal to or exceeding in length the light interspaces ; while on the head 

 a black band commences between the eyes and widens towards 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, colour, 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, verandahs, cupboards, or between 

 the bars of shutters ; while 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 killing more human beings in India 

 than any other snake. 



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

 the 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 behind 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; while 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 snake is a very variable species as regards coloration, some examples 

 having a dark spectacle-like mark on the back of the hood, while others have only 

 a single eye-like spot, and others, again, have no mark at all in this region. In 

 regard to coloration, Mr. Boulenger remarks that the hue of the upper-parts may 

 be greyish brown or black, with or without a spectacle — or loop-shaped black 

 light-edged marking on the neck — or with light spots or crossbands on the body ; 

 while beneath it varies from whitish, through brownish, to blackish, sometimes 

 with black crossbars on the fore-part of the bod}'-. Occasionally attaining a length 

 of a few inches over 6 feet, while an instance is on record where a specimen 



