THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 249 



residence at Osidge. It is set up in the erect posture with open 

 mouth, showing the fangs. I measured it, and found it taped G 

 feet 7i inches. * Our Society has recentlj^ acquired a specimen, 

 from Shamshirnagar, 6 feet 7 inches unskinned. Lyddeker f says 

 one has been recorded 7 feet 3 inches in length, but gives no 

 details of the locality where it was found nor the authority who 

 measured it. 



General characters. — The head is depressed, the snout rather 

 short, with no canthus, and broadly rounded as seen from above. 

 The nostril is rather large, and occupies the full depth of the 

 suture betM'een the nasal shields. The eye is moderate in size, 

 and the round shape of the pupil can usually be well seen in life. 

 In some specimens however the usually distinct arc of gold at the 

 pupillary edge may be so faint that the pupil does not show up 

 against the iris. There is a more or less obvious swelling in the 

 temporal region over the underlying poison glands. The tongue 

 is blackish at the tips. 



The shields on the head are highly polished. A neck is scarcely 

 if at all evident. Just behind the neck the hood commences, and 

 is discussed later. The body is depressed, and there is a more or 

 less distinct narrow groove down the spine. The scales over the 

 back like those on the head are highly polished. . The body 

 maintains a fairly uniform girth throughout. The tail is short, 

 and accounts for from one-fifth to one-ninth the total length. 



It is very interesting how much the relative length of the cobra's 

 tail differs in various localities, and I wish in my earlier days I had 

 been more careful to record this, for it n\s,j, I think, assist in the 

 difficult question of the classification of the varieties. I find that 

 in Cannanore the tail in ^5' ^ was one-eighth the total length, and 

 in $ 2 about one-ninth. In Fyzabad and Almora the tail is 

 about one-sixth in both sexes. In Chitral it was also about one- 

 sixth, and often in males only two-elevenths. In the Punjab it 

 was as much as one-fifth in some males, and from one-fifth to one- 

 sixth in females. In Burmah it was usually one-sixth in males, 

 and varied from one-fifth to one-seventh in females. 



Identification. — This is easy if attention is paid to the lepidosis. 

 The presence of the little "cuneate " scale between the 4th and 

 5th infralabials (see 1 Diagram Cun. ) will declare the snake 

 a cobra among all land snakes. It is found in many of the sea 

 snakes however. Rarely two such scales exist in the cobra, but it 

 is very rarely absent on both sides. Another important relation- 

 ship is that of the praeocular with the internasal shield. (Vid^e 

 figure Pra. and Int.) This is only seen in the snail snake, Amhly- 



* Jour. Bom. Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXI, p. 718. 

 t Royal Nat. Hist. Reptilia and Fishes, p. 223. 

 X Will be published in the second part. 



