180° JOURNAL, NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY OF. SIAM Vol. T. 
“hood” spread out. This menacing attitude however, threatening 
as it may appear, usually goes no further, and the snake if left 
undisturbed, will soon quieten down and glide away. I have never 
seen a cobra take the offensive, and it will not, I believe, attempt 
to bite one, unless thoroughly angered or actually seized. The 
accompanying illustrations, of specimens that had been recently 
caught, were taken upon an open lawn. They were photographed at a 
distance of from 3 to 4 feet, and are a further testimony, I am sure the 
photographer will not object to my saying so, more to the non- 
aggressive disposition of the creature, than to his own courage. Adult 
cobras when met with in their native haunts, generally seek refuge 
in immediate flight, and disappear into the nearest shelter available. 
Young ones are more aggressive. They are very alert, inclined to bite 
readily, and undoubtedly more dangerous. 
Cobras live well in captivity and are voracious feeders. Their 
natural food is small mammals, (chiefly rats), frogs, toads, and some- 
times other snakes. My own experience with them in captivity is 
unusual, in that they feed almost entirely upon toads. The reason of. 
this is not one of preference, as they will readily devour dead rats and 
frogs if placed before them, but simply because they are not sufficient_ 
ly quick to catch anything else. Even the slow-hopping toad is not 
caught with any ease and certainty. I have watched them when 
feeding on numberless occasions, and also when angered and fighting 
with each other in their cage, and so often do they miss and go 
wide of the object at which they strike, that they given one the im- 
pression of having defective sight. Or else they are particularly 
clumsy. In dealing with toads they do not attempt to make any use 
of their poison, but proceed at once to swallow the creature alive. 
Poison. Upon the rare occurrence of cases of cobra bite in 
Bangkok, I have already remarked (No. 1, Vol. I, p. 6). They occur 
more frequently in the outlying districts, as the records of the Pasteur 
Institute, during the short time in which it has been opened, will 
show. Dr. Robert who is in charge, told me that all that he had seen 
had occurred at night, and were due to the snake having been acci-' 
dentally trodden upon in the dark. Dr, Yai Sanitwongse also in- 
forms me, that since the decree has been issued for the destruction of 
Java weed in this country, quite a number of people have been bitten 
at Klong Rangsit. The snakes, it would appear, during the hot and 
