The Zoologist — September, 18()9. 1825 



" Just now my man broiiglit me in a young fully-grown niyna, 

 larger than a thrush, which he had seen disgorged by a large black 

 snake, after it had been more than half swallowed, i. e., till raid-wing 

 commencing from the head, or about five inches. The snake was in 

 a ' kujtir,' or date palm-tree; and the horsekeepers seeing it began to 

 throw brickbats at it: upon one hitting it, it threw up the bird, which 

 bore evident traces of having gone down head foremost, and relative 

 to the extent to which he had been pouched there could be no doubt. 

 I was not hitherto aware that a snake could thus disgorge. The said 

 snake then went into the crown of the tree, where there were some 

 fifty or sixty weaver-birds' nests, and where the rascal will find fine 

 feeding. I do not know of what species the snake may have been, 

 but it was probably a ' rfa/Ma«,' which often climbs trees, and is at 

 home amongst the boughs." 



The natives have generally a great antipathy to snakes, believing 

 nearly every one of thera to be venomous ; yet the appearance of a 

 cobra in a hut is in some parts held, as before noted, a happy augur3\ 

 Some of the large snakes — one in particular, the " daman," before 

 alluded to — of the N. W. Province, which I believe to be harmless, 

 att;iin a great size (I have found them eight to eleven feet in length), 

 and live chiefly in trees, feeding, I presume, on birds ; and it is 

 curious to see these large creatures going from one tree to another 

 without descending. 



But I will bring these desultory jottings on Indian snakes to an end 

 with the story of my first introduction to ihom at Midnapur, in 

 Bengal, in 1844. 



I had heard that one might take uj) the worst snake, if you suddenly 

 seized the tip of its tail with your left hand, and, passing the right 

 hand up smartly round the body, arrest it just behind the head, there 

 holding it firuily. It was in 1844, when I was living at Midnapixr, 

 that a snake-charmer came with several cobras, which he set dancing. 

 I remarked, " Of course all the fangs and poison-glands are removed." 

 He said they were not. There were some sixty or seventy people 

 present, when 1 went up, snapped up the largest snake by the t:\il 

 with my left hand, passed my right hand up some four feet, and held 

 him tightly just behind the head. I then let go of the tail, when the 

 reptile twisted itself round my arm and body. I next took out my 

 penknife from my waistcoat-pocket with my left hand, and, opening it 

 with my teeth, proceeded to show how the fangs were gone, wlieu, 

 to my horror, I found fangs, poison-glands, and all couiplete ! ! A 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. IV. 2 X 



