l6o HOURS WITH NATURE. 



nial home of the cobra, especially of the keutia variety. 

 Parts of Durbhangah and Rungpore are much infested 

 with these dreaded reptiles. Though popularly believed 

 to be two different kinds of cobras, the Gakhura and the 

 keutia are mere varieties of the same species, Gakhuras 

 show a preference for high and dry ground, and generally 

 keep to the neighbourhood of villages and homesteads. 

 Sometimes they are found inside houses and are looked 

 upon as custodians of concealed treasures. The gakhura 

 is the favourite snake of the snake-charmers, as it is gener- 

 ally good-tempered, and its movements are deliberate, 

 graceful and more amenable to control than that of the 

 keutia. The distinctive mark of a gakhura is its double 

 ocellus on the hood. Keutias are numerically more abun- 

 dant than gakhuras. There is an immense variety of them, 

 and they prefer low swampy and unfrequented places. A 

 cobra of the keutia variety, especially if it is young, is 

 more active and restless than a gakhura. During the 

 rainy season, when large tracts of the country become 

 flooded, keutias are reduced to great straits. At such 

 times, they take refuge upon trees in large numbers and 

 live, for the time being, in perfect amity with the other 

 occupants pf the trees. 



THE COBRA IN CAPTIVITY. 



In captivity, the cobra, like any other snake, seeks 

 retirement. A young cobra is less retiring than an old 

 one, and even likes to display its fully expanded hood. 

 A cobra, coiled up in a branch and swaying its expanded 



