30 



THE POISONOUS SNAKES OE INDIA. 



head 19-27 ; midbody 19 to 27; 2 heads length in front of the 

 Costals ^°J %/ jOosirrJs 



Fig. 17 — A, Scales on back of Lycodon aulicus. 

 B. „ „ S^aia tripudians- 



vent 15 usually (rarely 13 or 17). Anal entire. Suhcaudals divided 



throughout. 



Distribution. — It occurs in one or other of its many colour 

 varieties throughout the whole of our Indian possessions from 

 Burmah in the east to Sind in the west and from the Himalayas to 

 Ceylon and is always a fairly common snake. It is an inhabitant 

 of the plains, but it has been recorded at altitudes up to 6,000 feet. 



Poison. — Undoubtedly fatal to man, but by no means every case 

 of cobra bite necessarily proves fatal ; on the contrary a per- 

 centage hard to determine, but believed by Lamb to be about 30 

 per cent, of all cases, escapes with moderate or very severe symp- 

 toms, the dose injected being less than the lethal. (See part II, 

 page 76.) 



Dimensions. — Specimens over 6 feet in length are very un- 

 common. The largest measurements known to me are both 6 feet 

 7 inches. One was reported in the Bombay Natural History Jour- 

 nal (Vol. XXI, p. 718), from Shamshirnagar, and the other is in 

 the possession of Sir Thomas Lipton. It was killed in Colombo, 



