460 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



specimens there is no hood mark at all, and in death rigor 

 mortis stiffens the joints so that the hood is not easily demons- 

 trable. It is for this reason that attention to shield characters 

 is recommended. If the hood is seen dilated in life, there 

 should not be any donbt about the snake, but it must be 

 remembered that other snakes flatten the neck though to a 

 more limited degree. The cobra has been confused by Euro- 

 peans and natives with Zamenis fasciolatus, a snake that 

 occurs in Ceylon. 



Colouration. — As far as I am aware, variety typica is the 

 only form found in Ceylon. This is a uniform pale or dark 

 brown dorsally, or is dappled or variegated with wheat colour, 

 and brown or dun. The variegations in many specimens tend 

 to form indistinct cross-bars. There is a well-defined spectacle- 

 mark on the hood and a black spot on a white ground on each 

 side below the hood. The spectacle is a white mark on the 

 hood which may be very perfect, and encloses a black spot 

 or sometimes two on each side. It is frequently more or less 

 disintegrate, and occasionally completely absent. Mr. Green 

 has written to me of such a specimen. The central area of 

 the hood in some examples is reddish, and in others smoky 

 brown. The belly is more or less mottled with buff and 

 various shades of dun or brown, and beneath the hood there 

 are very generally two, sometimes more, dark bands of brown 

 or blackish. The throat and chin are frequently yellowish. 

 The head is olive-brown, with the sutures blackish, and there 

 is in many specimens a blackish ring round the eye, and a 

 fine subocular streak of the same colour. Mr. Green tells me 

 he has never seen a blackish specimen in Ceylon, but Aber- 

 cromby mentions such. 



Habits. — (a) Haunts : The cobra may be found almost 

 anywhere. I have encountered it in heavy jungle, and in 

 open country far removed from forest growth. The ryot 

 disturbs it in his crops, the mali in cantonment gardens, and 

 the sportsman when shooting. It is a common snake in 

 almost every populated area, and I have had it sent to me 

 frequently from within cantonment limits, from the regimental 

 and other bazaars, from Artillery and other lines, the suburbs, 

 and actually in the gardens of our largest towns, from inside 



