1 68 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



whitish, black-edged ring or mask-shaped figure, while in 

 the black varieties, sputatrix and leucodira, also of South- 

 Eastern Asia, the marking on the hood is entirely absent. 



This cobra, one of the most dangerous of snakes, its 

 bite producing death, often within a couple of hours, is 

 somewhat nocturnal, and usually becomes active only 

 towards dusk, when it leaves its burrow to hunt for the 

 small mammals, frogs, and eggs upon which it subsists. 

 Although capable of going for long periods without food, 

 the Indian Cobra, when in good health, is remarkably 

 voracious, a specimen at present living in the Zoological 

 Gardens having consumed 130 mice in the course of the 

 last year, devouring on occasions as many as eight mice at 

 a single meal. The eggs, about a dozen in number, are 

 deposited under decomposed leaves. 



In spite of the enormous numbers of deaths caused 

 yearly by this snake, it is still regarded in many parts of 

 India as a crime to kill a Cobra, its presence in a house 

 being considered by the natives to be an omen of 

 prosperity. 



The King Cobra or Hamadryad, N. bungarus, the 

 largest, boldest, and most dangerous of all venomous 

 snakes, is dreaded, not without good reason, for when 

 disturbed it does not content itself, like N. tripudians, 

 with merely sitting up and expanding its hood, but will 

 almost invariably attack. The Hamadryad, which attains 

 a length of fifteen feet, in spite of its wide distribution 

 (India, Burma, Indo-China, Southern China, and the 

 Malay Peninsula and Archipelago), is fortunately nowhere 

 very common. The coloration is yellowish-brown, olive, 

 or blackish above, with or without dark cross bands ; its 



