1847] Malayan Peninsula and Islands. 1039 



Habit. — Pinang, Singapore, Malayan Peninsula. 

 Bengal, Coromandel. 

 It is numerous in the Malayan hills and valleys, but apparently of 

 uncommon occurrence in Bengal. 



Var. nigra. 



Syn. — Naja tripudians, Var. nigra, Gray, Illustr. Ind. Zool. 

 Naja tripudians, Var, Schlegel. 



Upper parts intense black with strong purple or blue reflections ; 

 temples, lips, and throat pale orange, largely spotted with black ; the 

 lateral part of the anterior eight or ten, and of the 14th, 15th, and 

 17th scuta pale orange, black in the centre and with a broad black 

 margin ; the scales and interstitial skin on each side of the anterior 

 eighteen or twenty scuta white or buff, appearing on the lower sur- 

 face of the hood as two short parallel bands. The rest of the abdomi- 

 nal surface paler black than above, strongly iridescent, in certain lights 

 pale silvery. Iris black with the orbital margin pale grey ; tongue 

 light flesh-coloured. 



Scuta 184 to 187 ; Scutella 49 to 52. 

 Habit. — Pinang, Singapore, 



At Pinang the preceding variety prevails, at Singapore the present. 

 Both are local, and they appear respectively to congregate on single 

 spots of limited extent. Another black variety (Naja atra, Cantor) 

 which inhabits Chusan, differs from the present in having a number of 

 distant transversal double lines of a yellow colour. Beneath it is slate- 

 or pearl-coloured. 



The food of Naja lutescens consists of rats, small birds, (it occasion- 

 ally ascends trees,) lizards, and fishes, in search of which latter it fre- 

 quently takes the water, and even the sea, along the coasts. The 

 largest individual of the two Malayan varieties, was of the following 

 dimensions : 



Length of the head, ft. 1| inch. 



Ditto ditto trunk, 4 1 



Ditto ditto tail, 9 



4 ft. 11 J inch. 

 Circumference of the neck, 2{, of the trunk, 4 1, of the root of the 

 tail, 2f inch. 



