Elapidæ

Family of Proteroglypha, including poisonous snakes with cylindrical body, fusiform tail, and lateral nostrils. The poison fangs have an internal canal and an anterior groove. They are tropical, the majority inhabiting India and Australia: e.g., the COBRA (q.v.); the Naja, or Asp of Egypt; the Ophio phagus, or Snake-Eater of India, which grows to a length of 15 ft. and is the most venomous of reptiles, its bite proving fatal in three minutes. Elaps includes the Coral Snake, the Harlequin Snake ( E. fulvus ), so gentle as to be thought harmle by the uninformed, and the Hopalocephalus of Australia, exceedingly poisonous.