PO/SONOUS SNAKES. J I 



The genus Bungarus is so called from the vernacular appellation 

 of Bungarum, which is applied to one of the species on the Coro- 

 mandel coast. Some of them are very like Cobras without the hood, 

 as the Kerait (B. cceruleus), which is a much-dreaded snake in 

 India, but the geographic range of which extends neither to the 

 countries eastward nor to Ceylon. The Snakes of this genus have a 

 row of broad hexagonal scales along the middle of the back. The 

 Kerait grows to four feet and a half in length, and has the upper parts 

 of a bluish or brownish black, either uniform or more generally 

 marked with numerous narrow white cross-lines, which mostly 

 radiate from a white vertebral spot. In its habits it resembles the 

 Cobra, preying on small mammalia, lizards, toads, and probably 

 other snakes occasionally. The Raj -samp (literally, Lord Snake) 

 is a larger and thicker species than the Kerait, beautifully marked 

 throughout with alternate broad rings of black and golden-yellow. 

 This one is found almost generally throughout the Indian region, and 

 would seem to prey entirely on other Snakes, especially of the 

 Tropidonotus genus. It is of very sluggish habits, and frequents 

 moist places and the vicinity of water. A species or local variety 

 (B. ceylonicus), takes its place in Ceylon, and there is also a kindred 

 species (B. semifasciatus) in China and Formosa. According to 

 Cantor, the Bungarums are capable of darting nearly the anterior 

 half of the body. Their bite is very dangerous ; but " the magnitude 

 of the danger," remarks Dr. Gunther, " depends, as in other 

 venomous snakes, on many circumstances — chiefly on the size and 

 energy of the individual snake and on the place of the wound. As 

 the fangs of the Bungarums are comparatively short, the wound is 

 always superficial, and can be easily excised and cauterised ; also, 

 experiments made on some of the lower animals show that the 

 general effect on the whole system becomes visible only after a lapse 

 of time." 



Of poisonous snakes akin to the Bungarums, there are XhtXenurelaps 

 bungaroides, founded on a single specimen received from the Khasya 

 hills (north of Sylhet) ; and the Megmrophis flaviceps, which inhabits 

 the Indo-Chinese and the Malayan countries, but not India. The 

 latter attains to more than six feet in length, and when alive or fresh 

 the head and neck are vivid blood-red, which soon fades to a pale 

 buff hue in specimens immersed in spirit, and hence the faulty name 

 of flaviceps. As many as seven genera — Glyphodon, with two ascer- 

 tained species ; Diemansia, with four ; Hoplocephahis, with eight ; 

 Pseudechis, with one ; Pseudo-7iaja, with one ; Brachysoma, with 

 three ; and Vermicalla, with one — are peculiar to Australia with. 



