50 ELAPS FULVIUS. 



Description. The head is short, thick, and stout, rounded in front and not 

 distinct from the hody. The vertical plate is pentagonal, broadest in front, and 

 pointed behind; the superior orbital are regularly quadrilateral, and do not project 

 externally over the eye; the occipital plates are large and irregularly oblong; the 

 fi'ontal are pentagonal, broadest internally, narrow and pointed outwards and 

 downwards; the anterior frontal are irregularly quadrilateral, broadest internally; 

 the rostral plate is trigonal, broadest below, narrowed and rounded above. There 

 are two nasal plates, the anterior quadrilateral, the posterior triangular, the former 

 concave behind, the latter concave before, to complete the nostril; there is one 

 very large and irregularly quadrilateral anterior orbital, and two small posterior 

 orbital plates, rounded and nearly of the same size; back of these are two or three 

 large temporal plates; the upper jaw is covered with seven quadrilateral labial 

 plates, the largest being behind, and the third and fourth forming the lower part of 

 the orbit of the eye. The nostrils are lateral and near the snout; the eyes are 

 small but prominent, the pupil dark, the iris reddish-grey. The neck is the same 

 size as the head; the body is greatly elongated and nearly cylindrical, becoming 

 suddenly smaller at the tail, which is short, small and pointed. 



Colour. The head is black in front, with a bright yellow band at the occiput, 

 running forwards and downwards under the lower jaw, narrower above and 

 broader below. The ground-colour of the body above, as well as below, is jet 

 black, surrounded by about seventeen crimson rings, each with a yellow border 

 both anteriorly and posteriorly, and each with two or three black spots on the 

 abdomen. The tail is black, with three or four yellow rings; the tip is yellow. 



Dimensions. Length of head, 7 lines; greatest breadth of head, 5 lines; length 

 of body, 20 inches. In the specimen described, there were 212 abdominal plates, 

 and 32 pair of sub-caudal scales or bifid plates. 



Habits. They are foimd, in common with the Coluber coccineus, living under 

 ground in the fields where the sweet potato (Convolvulus batatas) is cultivated; 

 and are frequently dug up by the labourers when harvesting the potatoes in 



