690 MB. STANIiET S. FLOWER O^ THE [May 16, 



poisonous snakes, is fortunately of very rare occurrence in the 

 Malay Peninsula. Cantor obtained a specimen 857 mm. in length 

 "killed by Captain Congalton near Keddah." On the 1st June, 

 1898, I obtained a specimen near Alor 8tar, Kedah, 775 mm. in 

 length. Imagining it to be the harmless snake Lycodon suhcinetus, 

 I carried it in my hand upstairs to keep in my room, but fortunately 

 noticed it was a Krait and killed it before it had bitten anyone. 

 A few days later a servant came upstairs and placed on the table 

 a snake he had come across in the garden and thought I might 

 like : it was a live Cobra {Naia trijmdians) ; in this case also 

 luckily the snake had not bitten anyone. 



Description (notes on). Alor Star specimen mentioned above : 

 temporals 1 + 2; three lower labials in contact with the anterior 

 chin-shields, which are larger than the posterior. Scales in 15 rows. 

 Ventrals 220. Anal ? Subcaudals single, 40 (tip broken), except 

 the 24th and 25th, which are double. 



Colour (in hfe). Above purplish black, with 28 double white 

 cross-bands. Skin between scales whitish. Lips, chin, throat, 

 and underneath of body pale yellow, immaculate. Underneath of 

 tail purplish browu, with irregular pale yellow cross-bars. 



Hab. India, Burma, Southern China, Formosa, Hainan, Indo- 

 China, Lower Siam (Malay Peninsula), Java, Celebes. 



203. BuNGARUS FLATiOEPS Eeinh. 



Bungarus Jlaviceps, Blgr. Cat. Snakes, iii. p. 371 ; S. Plower, 

 P. Z. S. 1896, p. 894. 



Bab. Tenasserim, Cochinchina, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, 

 Nias, Java, and Borneo. 



204. Naia tripudians Merr. 



Naia trijyudians, Blgr. Cat. Snakes, iii. p. 380 (skull fig .p. 372) ; 

 S. Plower, P. Z. S. 1896, p. 894. 



/Siamese. " Ngu how." 



" Toodong sla " of the Malays of Kedah. 



" TJlar mata-ari " of the Malays, according to Cantor. Ular= 

 snake ; mata-ari = sun (ht. eye of the day). 



Localities. The Cobra is apparently not so numerous in the 

 Malay Peninsula as in parts of India and in Siam ; the British 

 Museum Catalogue records var. A.a from Penang, var. C.6 from. 

 Siam and Kedah, and var. D from Penang and Singapore. Mr. 

 Van Sommeren's collection contains a Cobra from Kuala Lumpor, 

 Selangor, and three caught on Penang Hill ; these are of small size, 

 Hght brown in colour, and have no marks on the hood. I obtained 

 a Cobra, in lalang grass, near Taiping, Perak, which does not agree 

 with any of the described varieties. One caught near Alor 

 Star, Kedah, belongs to var. C.6, as do also nine individuals ob- 

 served by me from the neighbourhood of Bangkok, where Cobras 

 frequently attain a large size, as the following table shows. 



