tf StfAKtfS. 



enabling the python to carry on respiration as usual 

 What is true of the python is true of all snakes. 



FALSE CHARGE AGAINST SNAKES. 



Popular prejudice and ignorance give a bad repute 

 to some of the common harmless snakes, such as the 

 Laodoga fDryophis mycterizans) and Beata chiti (Lyco, 

 don aulicus). Even a professional snake-catcher, unless 

 he is an expert, hesitates to approach a Bungraj (Dipsas 

 trigonata); its repulsive viperine aspect terrifies him, 

 The origin of the false charge may be traced to the fact 

 that these snakes possess long fang-like teeth which 

 are very useful to them in holdinig tough-skinned prey, 

 such as lizards, toads &c. 



THE COBRA. 



Of all the snakes now inhabiting the earth, the cobra 

 is undoubtedly the best known. It has acquired a world 

 wide reputation as the deadliest of all the venomous 

 snakes. The cobra has a very wide range of distribution, 

 being found all over India, Burmah, Ceylon, the Andaman 

 Islands, southern China, Indo China, the Malayan 

 Peninsula and the Archipelago. In the Himalayas, it 

 ascends to an altitude of nearly 8000 feet. To the west, its 

 range extends to Afganistan, North Eastern Persia, Sou- 

 thern Turkestan, as far as the Eastern coasts of the Caspian 

 Sea. Within India, certain tracts are more favourable 

 to its multiplication than others, although there is 

 not a single village where, at one time or another, a cobra 

 is not found. In Bengal, the Sunderbuns are the conge- 



