INDIAN SERPENTS. 
39 
The eyes lateral, very forward, large, orbicular. The nostrils close to the point of the 
rostrum, small, open. 
The trunk, round, clumsily shaped ; the scales on the back, oval, Garin ated, imbricate; 
on the sides, not carinated, and two rows next to the scuta, larger, roundish, smooth. The 
length, two feet nine inches and a half; the circumference, three inches and a half. 
The tail slightly carinated, tapers very gradually till within four inches of its sharp point: 
length, eleven inches. 
The colour; the head darker than the rest; two unequal, black, streaks, behind each eye, 
with a yellow spot between them. The neck, trunk, and tail, of a yellowish brown, with 
numerous round, black, spots, joined by narrow, black, fillets, regularly disposed in oblique 
rows; a few scales of lighter yellow being interspersed. On the tail the spots are not joined, 
and towards the point disappear. The scuta and squamae are of a yellowish white. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
From its frequenting the wet paddy fields, this is commonly reckoned a water snake. It 
moves swiftly, and carries its head high, with a menacing air, in its progression ; but, when 
provoked, it neither hissed, nor did it snap at a stick which was opposed to it. 
It seemed rather to avoid a chicken which was set down before it; and could not be pro¬ 
voked to bite, though pecked several times by the chicken. While it lay coiled up, a chicken, 
properly secured, was laid upon it, but it continued quiet, without attempting to wreath 
round the chicken, or otherwise to annoy it; and when the bird fluttered and struggled to 
get loose, the snake, as if afraid, creeped away. 
It should be remarked, however, that in the course of this last experiment, the snake 
threw up a pretty large fish, which appeared to have been but a short while in the stomach; 
so that its forbearance might, in some measure, be owing to not being hungry: a circum¬ 
stance that suggested caution against hasty decision. But from what I have observed in other 
trials on the same species, the Neeli Koea certainly is not venomous, and does not appear to 
be very irascible. 
