INDIAN SERPENTS. 
3 
OBSERVATIONS. 
I have before had occasion to remark, that the natives on the coast of Coromandel, 
distinguish a number of varieties of the Cobra de Capello, by different names ; but that 
I had found the distinctive characters extremely vague.* 
The mark in the hood of the Coromandel Coodum Nagoo, is indeed very different from 
that of the others ; but slight variations, both in shape and colour, are met with in all 
of them. 
The hood of the Sankoo Nagoo is plain, without any mark. From the specimen 
now in the Museum of the late Mr. John Hunter, it appears that Seba was mistaken 
in conceiving the want of the spectacle-mark to be a specific character of the female 
serpent.t I am led to repeat this remark on observing that the mistake of Seba 
has been adopted by the Count de la Cepede in his Continuation of Buffon’s Natural 
History.J 
Laurentius has made it a distinct species, calling it Naja non Naja. 
In Gmelin’s edition of Linnaeus, the three following varieties of the Coluber Naja 
are adopted from Laurentius, and references made to the figures in Seba’s Thesaurus. 
1 Naja fasciata Seba Thes. Vol. II. Tab. 89. f. 3. 
2 Naja Siamensis, ib. f. 1,2. 
3 Naja Maculata ib. Tab. 90. f. 2. 
The Naja Brasiliensis of Laurentius, Seba, p. 96. Tab. 80, f. 4, is, by Gmelin, made 
a new species under the name Rufus. 
The figure on the hood of that serpent, is certainly different from the others ; but if 
sufficient to constitute a distinct species, would not the Coromandel Coodum Nagoo 
have the like pretension ? 
The two hooded snakes in Seba, the one from Peru, Thes. Vol. II. Tab. 8 5. f. 1, the 
other from New Spain, Tab. 97. f. 4, are treated of separately by Cepede, on a suppo- 
sition that the skin of the neck was not (as in the other species) capable of expansion. 
But this can hardly be inferred from the words of Seba, “ non huic majus ac cuicunque 
vulgari serpente tumet collum.” Which may be equally said of all hooded snakes, when 
their necks are in a collapsed state. 
As to the Cobra from Peru, in Seba, Tab, 85. f. I, a more particular description is 
found in Gronovius.§ It has 193 Scuta, and 62 Squama? ; and I should think there is 
no ground for suspecting it differs materially from the Cobra de Capello of the East 
Indies. The same may be said of Seba’s serpent from New Spain, Tab. 9 7. f. 4 : by 
the way, the description of the mark on the hood of that serpent, (p. 103,) by no means 
agrees with the figure referred to. 
It appears upon the whole, that the hooded snake is a native of the new, as well as 
of the old continent. 
* Account of Coromandel Serpents, p. 7. t Ibid. p. 9 . 
| Histoire Naturelle des Serpens, Tome II. p. S9. Paris 17 8 9. $ Zoophylacium, p, 20 . No. 96. 
