1840.] Description of a new species of Naga, or Cobra de Capello. 39 



II. — Description of a new species of Naga, or Cobra de CapeUo. — 

 Walter Elliot, Esq. 



In the beginning of January last, a fisherman from one of the Coo- 

 pums near St. Thome, brought me a box, containing a snake w hich he 

 said he had picked up, floating in the sea, a few days before, when fi.^h- 

 ing in his catamaram. The lid was fastened and on opening it, he was 

 astonished to find a. nag snake. Perceiving it to be of unusual size, 

 and to differ from the common kind in the distribution of the colours, I 

 immediately bought it, and sent for a snake catcher, who took it out, 

 and displayed it more fully to view. It appeared dull and languid, but 

 was roused and expanded its hood. Its great length, the peculiar shape 

 of the hood, or dilatation of the neck, and the circumstance of its being 

 marked with numerous dark transverse bands, three of which extended 

 across the enlarged portion of the neck, seemed to indicate it, as a spe- 

 cies altogether different from the common sort. 



It may be described in detail, as a species of cobra or naga, with the 

 head scarcely broader than the neck, the crown depressed, and sloping 

 to the muzzle, which is somewhat obtuse, and covered with 14 more 

 conspicuous plates or laminae. The first, forming the point of the nose, 

 is semicircular, the next two between the nostrils are sub-triangular, 

 the sides rounded; another pair succeeding these are broader and 

 squarer. Between the eyes are three plates, larger than any of the 

 preceding, sub-conical, the base of the centre one being placed anteri- 

 orly, those of the lateral ones posteriorly. The pair behind these are 

 the largest of all, of an oblong shape, broader in front, and sloping from 

 the middle of the exterior edge,tothe posterior end: these are succeeded 

 by a smaller broad oval pair, at the lateral junction of which with the 

 preceding pair, are two others, distant and divided, which are about 

 the same size as the last, sub-triangular and rounded. The gape is 

 large ; the teeth in the lower jaw sharp, reflex and moderately 

 strong, those in the upper are smaller, and forming two rows along 

 the palate ; the larger fangs had been removed. The eyes are small, si- 

 tuated under and about the centre of the inter-ocular Iwminee. When the 

 animal is at rest, the neck is slightly smaller than the hcad,but when rous- 

 ed, it is capable of dilatation, like that of the cobra de capello : but the en- 

 largement, instead of being broader near the head and sloping as it 

 recedes, as in that species, is broadest in the middle and slopes gradu- 

 ally to the head and to the trunk. It is quite destitute of the spectacle 



