INDIAN SERPENTS. 
21 
The mouth wide. A complete marginal row of teeth above : no fangs. The eyes 
large and globular. The nostrils ringent. 
The trunk round, compressed, remarkably slender. The tail long, and tapers to a 
very slender, round point. 
The length one foot nine inches and a half, of which the tail claims five inches and 
a half. 
The colour. The head cinerious above, and the white cheeks remarkably streaked 
with black ; the neck lead colour, striped with obscure, oblique, black and white lines ; 
but from the middle of the body to the tip of the tail, the colour is more of a bluish 
gray, and the black stripes more strongly marked. The scuta white, many of them 
with black margins ; the subcaudal squamae are still more remarkably checkered black 
and white. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This serpent is not reputed dangerous by the natives ; they nevertheless assert that 
its bite occasions blindness in persons aged above forty: which I consider as fabulous. 
It was received from Tranquebar at the same time with the head of a large one of 
the same species, which measured in all six feet. The large one was considered by 
the Rev. Mr. John to be thejeri Potoo No. XXXIV. of the Coromandel Collection. 
He remarks further, that it is often found in company with the Cobra de Capello , 
and that from the sharpness of its scales it sometimes does harm to the rice grounds. 
If I am not mistaken, on a superficial view, small specimens of this serpent are not 
rare in the English collections. 
Where so remarkable a difference of colour between young and old subjects of the 
same species occurs, as in the foregoing instances No. XV. A, B, XVII. and XVIII. 
they come naturally to be regarded as distinct species, and different names are con- 
ferred on them accordingly. Hence the number in lists of serpents procured from the 
natives of India, far exceeds the number of existing species ; the same individual in 
its progressive states obtaining distinct names, the species in consequence come to be 
fallaciously multiplied. 
But however properly the naturalist may, on examination, lessen the number of 
species, by bringing classically together individuals before separated, yet, to all prac- 
tical purposes in the country, it must ever be of material consequence (at least in respect 
t.° poisonous serpents), to collect not only the provincial names, where different lan- 
guages obtain, but also the local names in the same dialect applied to different stages of 
the serpent’s growth : for the bite of venomous serpents of every age is always in some 
degree noxious. The bite of a young Cobra de Capello, .though not more than nine 
inches in length, has been known to prove fatal to a chicken in a few minutes. 
PART II. 
