no ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



in the summer of 1910. Suddenly, out of the long grass, 

 not ten feet in front of his horse's nose, a mamba raised 

 its crest a good four feet from the ground, and appeared 

 determined to dispute passage. Snatching his horse 

 quickly round. Wolhuter stuck the spurs in and went 

 off at best speed for fifty yards or more, when he pulled 

 up and looked back. He could then see the mamba's 

 head above the grass, its eyes still watching him, and 

 from its position he judged it had come after him for 

 about a dozen yards. In about eighteen years' residence 

 in the bushveld, he said it was the only instance he ever 

 knew of such a thing happening, and no doubt, had it 

 been possible to investigate, some reason outside sheer 

 vice would have been found justifying the animal's 

 conduct. 



The female mamba is rather larger than the male, which 

 may be distinguished by its more slender and whippy tail. 



The largest individual I ever killed measured about 

 ten and a half feet, and one of that length would, at its 

 thickest part, be of about the girth of a man's wrist. 



After the mambas, the most dangerous members of 

 the family are the cobras, of which there are several 

 species. Their bite is deadly ; but as they seldom 

 exceed five or six feet in length, they cannot strike so 

 high as a mamba ; nor have they the rushing habits 

 which render the latter so formidable. When excited 

 they can expand the skin of the neck, thus forming what 

 is known as the " hood." Members of the genus are 

 found all over Africa wherever forest or scrub exists and 

 the climate is sufficiently warm. 



THE BLACK-NECKED COBRA. This is the commonest 

 species in the Sabi Bush of the eastern Transvaal. The 

 members of it favour as dwelling-places the crevices of 

 rocks and the interstices between large stones. A rough- 



