INDIAN SERPENTS. 
19 
the tail, which in the former snake were both of a light yellowish-green; but here, both 
scuta and squamae are of a cineritious colour, blended with a faint pink, freckled elegantly 
with minute, black, and dusky-yellow, dots, while the inferior margins of the scuta, tinged 
with a dark yellow, form a succession of transverse, convex, fillets. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This snake is much seldomer met with than the one before described. It is in appear¬ 
ance much more ferocious; elevating its head and neck like the Cobra de Capello, opening 
the mouth wide, hissing furiously, and snapping at every thing opposed to it. Its bite, 
however, on chickens, produced no other bad effect than pain, which soon ceased; and 
though the upper fore-teeth may sometimes be mistaken for fangs, it certainly possesses no 
poisonous organs. 
Whether it is to be considered as distinct from the Passeriki Pam, I shall not take upon 
me to determine; but on a comparison of the two descriptions, circumstances sufficient may 
be collected to constitute at least a variety. 
No. XIV. 
COLUBER. 
Abdominal Scuta 17 5a 
12 31 . 
Sub-caudal Squama 5 6 J 
Called by the natives Jar a Potoo. 
The head a little broader than the neck, small, ovate, depressed, obtuse, with nine plates, 
or laminae; the occiput covered with small, yellowish, imbricate scales. The two anterior 
plates, between the nostrils, small, orbicular; the next two larger, irregularly angular; the 
two lateral between the eyes, conical; the middle one, shield-form, acute; the two posterior, 
semi-cord ate. 
The mouth middle size; the jaws nearly equal. The teeth , a marginal and two palatal 
rows, above ; the anterior teeth in the marginal row being somewhat longer than the others. 
The eyes lateral, globular, prominent. The nostrils, at the edge of the rostrum, large, 
open. 
The trunk round, polished, covered with small, ovate, close, imbricate, scales. 
Length , one foot, three or four inches. Thickness, near the head, of a goose-quill; in the 
middle of the trunk, somewhat more than a swan-quill. 
