NOTES FROM THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 563 



got loose, and, as may be supposed, created considerable 

 terror. While being caught, it turned and bit itself, burying 

 its fangs in its own flesh. I could not learn exactly the 

 spot where it wounded itself; but it was no doubt where 

 the hooked rod, or the snake tongs, had been offendingly 

 applied. 



A couple of cobras were presented by Sir Joseph Fayrer. 

 One of them bit the other repeatedly, and in so many 

 places that it was 'torn to pieces,' in the language of the 

 keeper. 'The body was all over sores.' Notwithstanding 

 this, it was several weeks dying. This painful spectacle 

 did not fall under my own observation, happily, but there 

 is no reason to doubt the occurrence. 



Next to the rattlesnakes few are more nervously timid 

 than cobras ; only, while the former displays fear by a 

 shrinking retreat, a cobra is aggressive, inasmuch as it 

 raises itself with a threatening aspect and distended hood. 

 It is on account of their extreme timidity that the cobras' 

 cages are screened with painted glass at the lower part, or 

 the reptiles, in aiming at offending spectators, would be 

 continually dashing their heads against the front, to their 

 own detriment. In this manner snakes wound themselves 

 very seriously, producing various mouth diseases. 



Before writing another word of what, as a student, I have 

 witnessed at the Gardens, I must here affirm that any 

 distressful occurrences are not related to gratify a morbid 

 curiosity in those who read only to be amused, but to enable 

 other students to acquire a better insight into ophidian 

 habits and physiology, and as a duty which I have set 

 myself to accomplish — a duty which has cost much moral 



