G08 



A NEW KRAIT FROM OUDH (BUNGARUS WALLI). 



By 



Captain F. Wall, i.m.s., o.m.z.s. 



(With a Plate.) 



(Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 2ith January 1907.) 



Our Indian fauna has just been enriched by a remarkably hand- 

 some and large Krait which I have had the good fortune to discover 

 in Fyzabad. 



Fyzabad, I may mention, seems to offer peculiar attractions to the 

 Common Krait (B. candidus) which I have never known nearly so 

 abundant in any other locality. Since the 17th of June this year (the 

 day before the rains broke) up to the date of writing (August 29th), 

 I have had 47 of this species brought in to me ! 



On August 6th I had a small Krait brought me in the morning, which 

 attracted my attention at once by its colouration and markings. A 

 closer investigation showed me that there were several other peculiarities 

 which convinced me the species was one new to science. At the Club 

 in the afternoon I was pursued by an urchin who produced another 

 specimen which, to my satisfaction, I found to exactly accord with the 

 morning one, and after getting home while dressing for dinner the 

 same boy brought me a third, identical in the peculiarities first noted. 

 Thus in one day I acquired three specimens of a snake hitherto unknown ! 

 I may mention that the day's bag exceeded 100 snakes of all kinds ! 

 These three Kraits were all small. 



Since this I have obtained 8 of the same species, and though 1 

 believe it a breach of ethics for any naturalist to call a species after 

 himself, the fact that this is the first new snake I have discovered in 11^ 

 years' hard collecting, may be pleaded as sufficient excuse for com- 

 memorating the event and attaching my own name to it. 



Description. Rostral, broader than high, touches 6 shields, the 

 sutures made with the internasals are twice those made with the 1st 

 labials, and two-thirds those with the anterior nasals. Internasals, a 

 pair; the suture between them rather less than half the suture between 

 the prefrontal fellows, three-quarters the internaso-prcefrontal suture. 

 Prcefrontals, a pair ; the suture between them about twice the prcefronto- 

 frontil suture ; each touches the internasal, postnasal, prseocular, 

 supraocular, and frontal. Frontal, touches 6 shields, of which the 



