534 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV 11. 



ing to Blanford (Mammalia, page 567, Fauna of B. I.) are unknown. The 

 rough measurements were : — 



Length 63 feet. 



Lower jaw 18 feet. 



Length of fin 6 feet (this measurement is doubtful as parts had rotted 

 away. Other measurements give 8 feet and 9 feet 7 inches as the leng th.) 



Decomposition was too far advanced to obtain any more measurements. 



The skeleton has since been visited and the following information obtained: 



Length of skull 14' 4". 



Breadth of skull 7' 6". 



Ribs 11 pairs. 



Length of rib 8' 6". 



Vertebrae about 48 in number. 



Length of Lower jaw 16'. 



In view of the importance of obtaining full and correct information as to 

 the external characters and measurements of these whales, it is to be hoped that 

 our members residing ne;ir the coast will bear the matter in mind, and if 

 another opportunity occurs (and this is not the first large whale which has 

 been washed on our shores) some further information will be obtained. 

 Mr. S M. Edwardes, I.O.S., and Mr. P. M. D. Sanderson kindly assisted in 

 providing the above information. 



W. S. MILLARD, 



Honorary Secretary, 

 26</i June 1906. Bombay Natural History Society. 



No. XXIX.— A FORTUNATE ESCAPE AND RECOVERY 

 FROM COBLiA BITE. 



On the 23rd June 1906, at 11 a.m., a Muhan madan, aged 22, well built, well 

 nourished, came to me at my office with a dead cobra, which measured 4' 3". 

 He had the end joint of the little finger of his left hand tied up with a dirty rag. 



The following facts were elicited: — On the previous day — 22nd June — at 

 about 5 p.m., the women and children in his house raised an outcry of 

 "snake, snake." Rushing in he saw the snake's tail disappearing inside 

 the room, and seized it, when the snake came round like a flash and seized 

 the end joint of the little finger of his left hand. He instantly snatched the 

 snake away with his right hand and dashed it on the ground and then killed 

 it. He tied up his finger which was bleeding slightly. He got very little sleep 

 during the night, as his arm up to the shoulder was very painful. In the 

 morning, when he untied the rag, he found one fang of the cobra broken 

 oft, and sticking in his finger. He threw it away, so could not show it to me. 

 On examining his finger I found that there was a tear — or rather an incised 

 puncture— about half an inch from the end of the finger on the outer side. 

 The finger had been crushed on some former occasion and consequently the 

 skin, where the wound had healed, was very hard, almost bone-like to the touch. 



