224 SNAKES. 



presents great variations in colour. Somewhat exceeding in size the true cobra, 

 the asp is distinguished by the sixth upper labial shield of the head much 

 exceeding the others in length, and uniting with the temporal, so as to form a large 

 plate, which anteriorly comes in contact with the postocular shield. In most 

 Egyptian examples the colour of the upper-parts is uniformly straw-yellow, while 

 the under-parts are light yellow ; . but there may be dark crossbands on the under 

 surface of the region of the neck, which sometimes unite into a patch. The straw- 

 colour may, however, shade into blackish brown and occasionally the hues may be 

 brighter. 



Our account of the habits of these snakes will be mainly confined 



Habits *> 



to the common Indian species, and since these have been specially 

 studied by Sir J. Fayrer we shall paraphrase or quote from his writings. Although 

 frequently seen in motion during the day, cobras are most active during the night ; 

 and they feed chiefly on small mammals, birds' eggs, frogs, fish, and even insects. 

 The giant cobra subsists, however, almost entirely on other snakes ; and the other 

 species will occasionally rob hens' nests, swallowing the eggs whole. In captivity, 

 cobras will live weeks and even months without tasting food of any kind or 

 touching water. Although essentially terrestrial, they will readily enter water, in 

 which they swim well ; while they occasionally climb trees in search of food, and 

 are often found, more especially during the rainy season, in old buildings and walls, 

 or in wood-stacks and heaps of rubbish. It is when collected in such situations 

 that they are most commonly trodden upon by the natives — and more frequently 

 at night than at other times — with the well-known fatal results. These snakes 

 lay from eighteen to twenty-five oval eggs about the size of those of a pigeon. 

 Ascending to a height of some eight thousand feet in the Himalaya, the common 

 cobra " is equally dreaded and fatal wherever met with ; fortunately it is not 

 naturally aggressive, unless provoked, at which times its aspect is most alarming. 

 Raising the anterior third or more of its body, and expanding its hood, with a loud 

 hissing, it draws back its head prepared to strike, and, when it does so, darts its 

 head forwards, and either scratches, or seizes and imbeds its fangs in the object of 

 attack. If the grasp be complete and the fangs imbedded in the flesh, dangerous 

 and often fatal effects result ; but if the fangs only inflict a scratch, or if the snake 

 be weak or exhausted, the same great danger is not incurred. If the poison enter 

 a large vein and be quickly carried into the circulation, death is very rapid ; men 

 having been known to perish from cobra-bite within half an hour. The largest 

 and strongest as well as the smallest and weakest creatures succumb ; but, fortun- 

 ately, all who are bitten do not die. In the first place, some human beings, as well 

 as lower animals, have greater tolerance than others of this or of other poisons — a 

 result, doubtless, of idiosyncrasy or varying degrees of nervous energy which 

 enables one to resist that to which another would yield ; or a wound may have 

 been inflicted and yet but little of the poison inoculated ; or, in the third place, the 

 snake may be weak or sickly, or it may have been exhausted by recent biting, and 

 thus have become temporarily deprived of the power of inflicting a deadly wound. 

 But when a cobra in the full possession of its powers bites, and injects the poison 

 into man or beast, it is almost surely fatal, and all the remedies vaunted as infallible 

 antidotes are futile." 



