ELAPIDiE. 
11 
This Bungarus grows to a great size. Gunther says four 
feet, but it has been found over six feet. I killed one in Ban- 
goon many years ago over five feet in length. Mason says it 
grows to six or eight feet. A specimen now in the Indian 
Museum is 5Sf inches long, 4f inches in circumference. It is 
very remarkable in its coloration, being composed of a series of 
black or steel blue and bright gamboge yellow rings. There 
is a peculiar metallic lustre on the skin which is very beautiful. 
Its tongue is flesh coloured; lips and throat gamboge coloured. 
The Bungarus fasciatus is tolerably common in Bengal and in 
Southern India, as well as Burmah, and it is also known in 
the north-west, where it is sometimes called “ Koclia Krait.” 
Its bite is very dangerous, but the police returns do not show 
that it causes many deaths; probably because it is not so 
much in the way of being met with as the Cobra or Krait. Its 
fangs are relatively to those of the Cobra very small, and its 
bite in dogs causes death much slower than the Cobra’s bite. 
It is much less valued by the snake-men than the Cobra, as it 
does not erect its head, nor is it amenable to their tuition. 
Dogs bitten by B. fasciatus died at various periods from four 
hours twenty-eight minutes to ten days. 
Dr. P. Bussell has figured this snake inhis great work on Indian 
serpents, and in describing it he notices what is very striking, 
the trigonal shape of its body, the sharp dorsal ridge and declin¬ 
ing sides. Gunther’s definition of it is as follows :—“ The 
first temporal shield is scarcely longer than high. Yentrals 
200- 233; sub-caudals 32-36. Body with alternate broad 
black and yellowish rings, extending across the belly; there 
are from twenty-five to thirty-three of these black rings round the 
trunk ; the first is the broadest, and produced into a triangular 
process, the point of which rests on the vertical shield. Head 
black anteriorly and on the sides, separated from the triangular 
process by a yellow Y-like mark. Lower parts and throat 
uniform yellow.” The hexagonal vertebral shields and the 
hard blunt and almost bony end of the tail, with which some 
natives think the snake can sting, are very characteristic. 
Bungarus cleruleus. 
This is the Krait* of India, and next to the Cobra is the 
snake most destructive to human life. It is figured by Bussell 
in his great work, and is called by him “ Gedi Paragoodoo.” 
It is called “ Dhomun Chiti” in some parts of Bengal. It has 
a variety of synonyms :— 
Pseudoboa cserulea, Schneider. 
Boa Krait, Williams. 
Boa lineata, Slum. 
Bungarus cseruleus, Baud. 
„ lividus. Cantor. 
„ candidus, Cantor. 
„ arcuatus, Bum. and Bib. 
„ lineatus, Gunther. 
This snake is described by Gunther as follows :—“ The first 
temporal shield is considerably longer than high. Ventrals 
201 - 221; sub-caudals 38-56. Lower parts uniform white; 
upper parts bluish or brownish-black, uniform, or with more 
or less numerous, very narrow white cross streaks, not quite as 
broad as a scale, and generally radiating from a white vertebral 
spot. No collar.” I would add that the lower part, the ventral 
surface, is sometimes, as in a specimen from the Indian 
Museum, Calcutta, now before me, of a dark livid colour, or of 
a yellow tinge, and that the light coloured bands are broader 
than a scale uniting with the general light colour of the 
ventral surface. 
* Note by Mayor MacMahon, Deputy Commissioner of Delhi, on the origin of the 
name Karait or Krait—“ Kalgundait is the proper Urdu name for the Bungarus 
casruleus. _ Krait is, I presume, merely an English corruption of the Urdu word 
Kalgundait. If not it must he a Bengali corruption of it, as no native of Delhi 
would understand you if you spoke of the Karait or Krait. I presume Kal means 
death, or perhaps Kala, hlack. However, it is the common word used in a figura¬ 
tive sense for famine. 
“ Kala gundedar, a hlack snake spotted.” 
Gunther describes three varieties :—■ 
“a. Upper parts uniform blackisli-brown : B. lividus, Cantor, 
from Assam. In young specimens the head is white, with a 
black line between the occipitals. 
“ /3. A vertebral series of equidistant small white spots, from 
which narrow transverse streaks proceed.” 
“ y. Upper parts with narrow white streaks arranged in pairs : 
B. arcuatus. Bum. and Bib.” 
The coloration of the dark parts varies from a deep, almost 
steel blue black to a chocolate brown. Tongue white. Iris black. 
This species of Bungarus is common all over India; it seems to 
be more destructive to life in the Upper Provinces than in 
Lower Bengal. The fangs are much smaller than those of the 
Cobra, and its poison is not so rapid in its action, which circum¬ 
stance, with the comparative smallness of the wound, gives 
greater hope of cure, but it is, as I have said, very dangerous 
and destructive, as shown by the police returns. 
It grows to a considerable size: one in the Indian Museum 
measures 47f inches in length, and 2# in circumference; and a 
living specimen I received from Delhi was 49 inches in length. 
Dr. P. Bussell gives 29 inches as the length, but it certainly 
attains a much larger size than this. Gunther says 54 inches. 
The trunk is of nearly equal thickness from the neck to within 
four or five inches of the tail. The scales in the dorsal ridge 
are large and hexagonal. Dr. Bussell says that this snake was 
sent to him from Masulipatam, under the name of “Cobra 
Monil.” Gunther says that the Europeans in the peninsula of 
India give the same name Cobra Monil to the Baboia russellii 
or “ Tic-polonga.” 
The Krait seems to be common all over India. I am not 
aware if it be found in the Himalaya. It is found in the fields, 
grassy plains, rice khets, low scrubby jungle, and among debris 
of wood or buildings. It sometimes insinuates itself into 
houses in the verandah, bath-rooms, on the ledges of doors or 
jhilmils, into bookcases, cupboards, &c., and in such situations 
it is not unfrequently the cause of fatal accident. I know of 
an instance where, after a night’s dale in a palanquin, a lady, 
in taking out her things on arriving at her destination, found 
a Krait coiled up under her pillow; it had been her travelling 
companion all night. 
The Krait may be mistaken for Lycodon aulicus * an innocent 
snake, the colouring and general appearance being in many 
cases very similar. The least examination of the mouth would 
detect the difference, but at first sight they are much alike, and 
are often mistaken, the Lycodon suffering for its resemblance to 
its poisonous fac-simile. 
XENUBELAPS. 
Xenureeaps bungaroides. 
There is only one species as yet known of the genus Xenur¬ 
elaps, and Gunther says there is only one specimen of it 
preserved, and that is in the Museum of the University of 
Oxford. It is 15£ inches long, the tail measuring 1£ of an 
inch. This specimen came from Chirra Punji in the Khasya 
Hills : the only habitat given by Gunther. 
It is very closely allied to and resembles a Bungarus. 
Gunther gives the following definitions of the genus :— 
“ Body sub-cylindrical, long and slender; belly rounded ; 
head short, sub-triangular, with rounded snout, not distinct 
from neck, which is not dilatable ; tail short. The shields of 
the head normal, but the loreal is absent. Nostril lateral, 
between two shields ; eye small, with round pupil; one prse», 
two post-oculars. Scales smooth, not much imbricate, in fifteen 
rows; those of the vertebral series enlarged, hexagonal. Anal 
entire; sub-caudals bifid. Maxillary with a grooved fang in 
front, and with a small smooth tooth behind.” 
* Tlie Lycodon aulicus is not so dark coloured as tlie Krait. 
