Colour grey, with black cross-bars; a series of black spots on the sides, between the bars; large black blotch on nape; belly white. Total length, 160 millimetres; tail 12. _Habitat_: Congo. (4) _E. decosteri._--Snout obtusely pointed. Colour, dark grey, each scale edged with black; belly white. Total length, 380 millimetres; tail 38. _Habitat_: Delagoa Bay. (5) _E. sundevallii._--Snout obtusely pointed. Colour reddish-brown, with yellow transverse bands, the scales in which are edged with reddish-brown; upper lip and belly yellow. Total length, 510 millimetres; tail 43. _Habitat_: Caffraria. (6) _E. boulengeri._--Scales in 15 rows. Colour black on the back, with narrow white transverse bands; head white, with a black streak along the parietal suture; belly blackish-grey. Total length, 170 millimetres; tail 14. _Habitat_: Zambesi. (c) =Naja.= (For the characters of this genus, see Asia, p. 33.) Six species of _Naja_ are found in Africa:-- (1) _N. haje_ or _haie_.--Scales in 21-23 rows on the neck, which is dilatable, although slightly less so than that of _N. tripudians_, the Cobra-di-Capello of India. Six or seven large supralabial shields, sixth or seventh in contact with the lower postocular. Eyes separated from the labial shields by the suboculars. 191-214 ventral scales; 53-64 subcaudals. Colour yellowish, olive, or uniform black; belly yellowish; black or brown band on the neck; head sometimes blackish. Total length, 1,180 millimetres; tail 290. _Habitat_: Borders of the Sahara, Egypt, Southern Palestine, East Africa as far south as Mozambique. * * * * * _Naja haje_ (the Egyptian Cobra) is common throughout the Nile Basin, the Sudan and Central Africa. Livingstone mentions it several times. In Egypt it is met with in the vicinity of ruined monuments, under the large blocks of stone or among brushwood. The Egyptians are greatly in dread of it, and hunt it down as often as possible. When pursued, _N. haje_ turns bravely and faces its adversary, raising itself upon its tail, puffing out its neck and hissing fiercely. If too hard pressed it strikes at its enemy. “A friend of mine,” writes Anderson, “had great difficulty in escaping from one of these snakes. While botanising one day a _Naja_ passed quite close to him. My friend darted backwards with all speed, but the _Naja_ pursued and was about to attack him, when he stumbled against an ant-hill and fell flat on his back. This, no doubt, frightened the snake, which disappeared in a twinkling.”