104. 



P. PULVERULENTUS, Boie. Plate XIII, fig. 3. 



Ventrals 146-167, subc. 50-59. Head long, crown flat, 

 snout obtuse. The second or third tooth long and enveloped 

 in a large mucous envelope so as to simulate a poison-fang. 

 Labials 8 (3, 4 & 5), the first 3 high. General appearance 

 and colour not unlike a short, narrow-headed Di/psas. Light 

 brown, mottled ; when young a black vertebral stripe, with 

 an edging of black and white spots ; this disappears with age ; 

 belly and sides yellow with a median and two lateral rows 

 of brown mottling or lines ; throat white, mottled ; kJ mark 

 on head. 



I caught one specimen while it was swimming across the 

 Rangoon lake. Adult length 1 foot, tail one-fifth. 

 Assam, Burma, Straits. 



Second Sub-order— VENOMOUS COLUBRINE 

 SNAKES. 



Family XVIII— ELAPID^E. 



Body moderate, tail rather short. Head-shields normal, 

 but no loreal. Eye small or moderate, with round pupil. 

 An erect poison-fang in front of the maxilla there being 

 one or more simple teeth behind. 



NAGA.* (Naja, Laurentius). 



Anterior ribs elongate, erectile, dilating the skin of the 

 neck. Head short and rounded. One rudimentary tooth 

 behind the poison-fang. Ventrals less than 200.-|" Anal entire. 



* Usually written Naja ; as the word is probably derived from 

 nagam. I prefer to write" it iVagra. 



t In a bleached specimen which I found in the Madras Museum 

 stores, there are 209 ventrals and only 21 rows of scales both on the 

 body and the neck. It has also a fourth postocular completing the 

 orbital circle. I have not made a new genus for it. 



