THE HOODED SNAKE. 73 



Whence its name Mortality of its bite. 



animal is capable of extending at pleasure. It 

 is generally about three or four feet long, and 

 somewhat more than an inch thick, and is usually 

 marked on the top by a very large and conspi- 

 cuous patch resembling a pair of spectacles. Its 

 common color is a pale nasty brown above, and 

 beneath a bluish white, tinged with yellow. The 

 tail tapers to a slender and sharply-pointed ex- 



tremitv. 



./ 



This animal, when irritated or preparing -to 

 bite, raises up the fore part of its body, bends 

 'down its head, and seems, as it were, hooded by 

 the expanded skin .of the neck, whence it de- 

 rives its name. Its bite is sometimes mortal in 

 two or three hours, especially if the poison has 

 penetrated the larger vessels or muscles. A dog 

 bitten by one of them died in twenty-seven 

 minutes; and another, larger, survived fifty-six 

 minutes. A chicken died in less than half a 

 minute, though others survived a couple of 

 hours, depending probably on the heat of the 

 weather, and the condition -of the serpent at the 

 time. 



The hooded snake in India is carried about in 

 a basket to be publicly exhibited as a show, be- 

 ing first deprived of its fangs to secure the men 

 from the danger of its bite. At the sound of a 

 flageolet it is taught to assume a kind of dancing 

 attitude and motions, which it continues as long 

 as its master continues his music. 



VOL. vi. NO. 40. K 



