THE POISONOUS SNAKES OP INDIA. 27 



to receive further qualification according to variations in colour. 

 I have never heard these names in other parts of India, and it is 

 probable that they are peculiar to Bengal. The former is the 

 common variety in the Indian Peninsula, in which region the latter 

 is decidedly rare according to my experience, but the converse holds 

 good in Burmah and further East. In Bengal the distribution of 

 the two forms seems to overlap, and both are common. In Bengal 

 I have heard " Nag samp " and " Kala samp " as frequently in use 

 as in other parts of India. In Madras it is called by the Tamils 

 "Nalla Pamboo, " and on the Malabar Coast is known as " Sair- 

 poon " and " Moorookan. " In Mysore it is the " Nagara havoo, " 

 and according to Russell " Nagoo " on the Coromandel Coast. It 

 is the " MwS howk " of the Burmese. 



Identification. — I have no doubt that to most people living in 

 India, the recognition of a cobra seems a very simple thing, and 

 this is true as a rule. If the snake is seen alive at close quarters 

 with the hood expanded, its identification will hardly admit of a 

 doubt. Still it must be remembered that the hamadryad expands 

 its hood to an almost equal degree, and that certain harmless 

 snakes, especially the Keelbacks (Tropidonoti, and their allies), 

 erect themselves, and flatten the neck, though to a lesser degree. 

 The spectacle mark on the hood of the binocellate cobra, and the 

 oval spot surrounded by an ellipse on the hood of the monocellate 

 or Burmese variety, are both of them quite distinctive of this 

 species, and if constant would make diagnosis invariably easy. 

 Many cobras, however, have these marks so modified or obscured 

 that most people unfamiliar with this subject, would fail to recog- 

 nise them if reliance is placed on these alone. 

 / 



After death the hood is obliterated, and if the creature is stifi 

 cannot be readily demonstrated, and I have frequently under 

 these conditions known people express surprise when told that a 

 specimen is a cobra, shake their heads, and think they know better. 

 Again, I have seen the loose skin about the neck of a harmless 

 snake pulled out, and a hood claimed where none existed, so that 

 one must admit that in a few cases, at least, the cobra is not re- 

 cognised, and sometimes a harmless p.nake is mistaken for it. 



