The Zoologist — Septembeb, 1869. 1815 



returned, we to our great astonishment saw him bringing the snake in 

 his mouth : without stopping he took it some eight or ten steps 

 towards our verandah, on which I was standing, and then, after 

 having shaken it violently, dashed it on the bare ground, which done, 

 he immediately withdrew backward, so as to give the bystanders an 

 opportunity to make use of their sticks : whether these were still 

 necessary or not I could not find out. In catching the snake in the 

 hedge the dog was less than a minute ; and then I heard him scream, 

 as he always does out of sheer pleasure the moment he catches a 

 neola or a rat. The snake proved to be a little more than three feet 

 in length, and two inches behind its head the marks of the dog's 

 teeth could plainly be seen. Three days after this had taken place 

 the dog again encountered a cobra at the edge of our verandah, which 

 was then killed by the servants whom his noise had attracted." 



I have heard of one other dog who went about killing snakes, and 

 he seized them in exactly the same manner behind the head. A story 

 relating to this animal is hereinafter told. 



I will now give, in the words of the narrator, the Rev. M. A. 

 Sherring, LL.D., of the London Mission, Banaras, an account of the 

 curious manner in which a snake was captured. " My servant set the 

 rat-trap (which was of ordinary size and shape) one evening, in a small 

 room in the mission-house bungalow. The next morning, on looking 

 in, he saw a large snake of the cobra species angry and savage, and, 

 in addition, in one corner, a musk-rat quite dead : whether the animal 

 died from terror, or from the bite of the reptile, does not appear. It 

 is probable that the snake had pursued the rat into the trap, and that 

 the door then falling had shut them both in. The snake was fully 

 three cubits, or 4j feet in length, and of proportionate thickness, and 

 filled up a large portion of the trap ; it was afterwards killed." 



I have already shown how, in some cases, dogs kill snakes (although, 

 in truth, they are oftener killed by them, as all sporting men in India 

 too well know), and I now propose to show how some cats catch and 

 kill snakes, and the use they make of them when caught : the story 

 is given in the words of the narrator, Captain Campbell. 



" At Fyzabad (Oudh), in 1863, several of us were assembled one 

 morning in the verandah of the mess-house, when we perceived a 

 snake stealing along just outside : we got a very fine Persian cat, 

 belonging to Mr. Toke, who lived in the mess, and showed her the 

 snake ; to our surprise she at once flew at it, and, seizing it just at the 

 back of the head, killed it at once. Not satisfied with this, she 



