284:0.'] 



Account of Hamadr7jas OpMopliagus. 



(191 



HAMADRYAS, (Cantor.) 

 " Generic Character.— Head broad, subovate, deplanate, with a short 

 obtuse rostrum, covered above with fifteen scuta. Cheelcs tumid. Eyes 

 large, prominent, pupil round. Nostrils widely opened within the 

 confine of two scuta. Gape very ample, subundalated. Poison-fangs 

 anterior, behind which are the maxillary teeth. NecJc dilatable. Bodij 

 thick, smooth, imbricated with smooth scales disposed in oblique rows. 

 Tail short, covered with scuta and scutella, its apex acute. (Cantor.) 



'* Example. — Hamadryas ophiophagus. (Cantor.) 



" Description. — Above olive-green, girt with black sagittal striae, 

 abdomen glaucous, marbled with black. The Hindustanee name is 

 tSunlcr-Choar. 



Locality. — Bengal. 



The Hamadryas, like the Bungarus, Hydrus, and Hydrophis, has a 

 few maxillary teeth behind the poison-flings, and thus like the latter 

 connects the venomous serpents with isolated poison-fangs to the harm- 

 less, which possess a complete row of maxillary teeth. Of the terres- 

 trial venomous serpents the Bungarus is chiefly characterized by a dis- 

 tribution of the teeth similar to that of the Hamadryas, which, also 

 partaking of the chief characteristic of the genus Naja, viz. that of 

 forming a hood or disc, constitutes an immediate link between the 

 genera. Bungarus and Naja. 



Hamadryas ophiophagus differs from the Naja tripudians : 



1. By its maxillary teeth. 



2. By the strongly developed spines on the os occipitale inferius. 



3. By the integuments covering the head. 



4. By the integuments covering the abdominal surface of the tail. 



5. By its colour. 



6. By its size. 



" According to the natives the Hamadryas feeds chiefly upon other 

 serpents; in one I dissected I found remains of a good sized Monitor, 

 which fact may account for its arboreal habits, as I have in Bengal, 

 along the banks of the rivers, observed numbers of those large lizards 

 among the branches of trees watching for birds. 



*' The power of abstaining from food, generally speaking, so charac* 

 teristic of the serpents, is but in comparatively small degree possessed 

 by this species; the most protracted starvation amounts to a period of 

 about a month, while the Vipera elegans, the Naja tripudians, and the 

 Bungarus annularis, have, without inconvenience, been confined in 



