MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 1019 



wide open that the jaws nearly formed an angle of 180°. It turned its open 

 mouth upwards towards us, so that we could almost see down its throat 

 whether with the intention of ejecting poison or not I do not know. No men- 

 tion was made by anyone of any such ejection being noticed. I had seen 

 snakes represented in Heraldic drawings with their mouths open to this extent, 

 but had thought such an attitude existed in the imagination only, but now 

 see that the Heralds were truer to nature than one thought. We were so 

 surprised that none of us did anything the first time, and the snake quickly 

 withdrew again into the hole. This was repeated several times, the blows 

 aimed at the cobra not taking effect, as it withdrew almost immediately. 

 At about the third or fourth appearance I pinned the body of the snake 

 against the side of the tank with my stick so that it could not withdraw. It 

 struck savagely at the stick twice and then seized it and held on, in which posi- 

 tion it was finally killed by blows from another stick by one of the European 

 soldier clerks. Even then we had some difficulty in pulling out the rest of it, 

 as the portion in the drain seemed to grip on to the sides and resist all it could. 

 We, however, finally gripped it in a split bamboo and got it out. We had no 

 means of measuring with us, but estimated it to be about a 5' cobra, almost 

 black and rather thick for its length, and the head half as cut off by the shot 

 to be some 3" or 4" longer than the tail half. 



H. V. BIGGS, Lt.-Col.,E.E. 



Mhow, 0. I., 



11th January 1907. 



No. X.— THE BOLDNESS OE PANTHERS. 



I was glad to read a letter on the above subject on page 522 of this volume 

 of the Journal by F. Field, but consider that the following personal experience 

 taken from a record made in my diary at the time, beats anything I have 

 heard on the subject of the boldness of panthers, and as such may be also of 

 interest to your readers. 



On the 29th of April last I was camped near a fishing stream close to a 

 village in quite open country except that on the right front of my tent there 

 was a little tongue of scrub-jungle detached from some heavier scrub-jungle 

 by a path and bare ground. I usually have constructed, in front of my tent, 

 a temporary roof supported on four bamboos driven into the ground. 



It was at night after dinner that I sat reading with a strong light behind me 

 on a table, just outside the tent but under the temporary roof, my legs thrown 

 out horizontally and resting on one of the bamboo props of the roof, my dog 

 asleep directly under my outstretched legs. 



At the end of a story, I let the magazine rest on my chest and closed my 

 eyes. On re-opening them, I was conscious of something near me and looked 

 down straight into the eyes of a large panther, scarcely 3 yards away, which 

 came crouching along the ground. To jump, shout and throw the magazine 



