56 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



snakes endowed with a specialised grooved tooth (fang) in the front of 

 the maxilla. It is to the third group that I reserve the term "poison- 

 ous," purely as a term of convenience however, for although all the 

 snakes whose bite is known to prove fatal to man fall into this category, 

 many of the group are known to produce baneful effects usually falling 

 short of death, whilst the effects of many others remain in obscurity. 



The difficulty in laying down hard and fast rules by which to distin- 

 guish the poisonous varieties and separate them one and all from their 

 non-poisonous allies may be appreciated from the fact that there are no 

 less than 290 species already known within our limits, of which 62 are 

 poisonous. All the poisonous species fall into one of the following 5 

 groups with one solitary exception, viz., Azemiops feae the existence 

 of which may be ignored for all practical purposes since only one 

 specimen is known. It was found in the Kachin Hills, Burma. 



Key to distinguish the Poisonous Snakes. 



1. Tail compressed (i.e., flattened like an eel's) Sea snakes ^ 



(see fig. 1A). Snout and crown covered (29 species), 

 with large plate-like shields (see fig. 6). 



'2. Tail round (see fig. 1C ) Median row o Kraits (7 



scales down the back distinctly enlarged species). 

 (see fig. 7). Only 4 infralabial shields, 

 the 4th largest (seel to IV, fig. 8). 



3. Tail round (see fig. 1C). 3rd supralabial Cobras and 



touching the nasal shield and the eye coral snakes 

 (see fig. 12). (10 species). 



4. Tail round (see fig. 1C). A conspicuous Pit vipers 



opening in the side of the face between (12 species). 

 the eye and the nostril (see fig. 24 B). 



5. Tail round (see fig. 1C). Snout and Pitless 



crown covered with small scales as on vipers 



back of body (see fig. 37). Only part of (4 species.) 

 the last row of costals visible on either 

 side of the ventrals when the specimen 

 is laid on its back (see fig. 5 and 

 contrast with figs. 3 and 4). J 



A specimen which cannot be brought into one of these five groups 

 is harmless. 



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