EAST AFllICAN SNAKIJS. 891 



that. It ineasiued 64^ inches, and in its stomach was a young 

 pigeon, whilst two pigeon's eggs were in its gullet. 



Twelve days later, just after dark, there was another great 

 outcry amongst the poultry, and my host running out with a 

 stick surprised a 66^-incli cobra swallowing a chicken, taken 

 thus at a disadvantage ib was easily dispatched. It was of course 

 .stated that it was the mate of the first, come in search of its 

 fellow, but unfortunately for this popular belief both were 

 females. 



At Morogoro, a native brought ine a chicken coop containing 

 one dead cobra, one fowl ditto, and three chickens, one of which 

 was hen.dless. A few days before, this snake Avas supposed to 

 have taken three chickens from the same coop. This time the 

 boys hearing cackling ran out and killed the snake, but not before 

 it had bit.ten the fowl and her brood. Opening the snake I found 

 one chicken in its stomach and a chicken's head in its gullet, and 

 so surmise that it was in the act of swallowing it when struck by 

 the boys, who probably knocked ofi" the chicken's body in their 

 attempts to strike the snake's head. Length 51 inches. 



I have already spoken of a cobra killed whilst swallowing a 

 sand snake. I have known one to eat four toads {B. regularis) 

 in a fortnight, another three in one day, and a still more 

 reniarkablo case of gluttony occurred at Morogoro. I went out 

 with a lamp and put two toads in the snake's cage, which was 

 occupied by a half-grown cobra only. It seized the first toad and 

 on my return was chasing the other round the cage with the first 

 in its mouth ; it struck at it again and again, but of course 

 without effect. It then paused and swallowed very energetically. 

 "When the first was disposed of the second was bitten in the 

 abdomen, held for half-a-minute, then released, but as it began to 

 hop it was seized by the hind leg, and for nearly twenty minutes- 

 the cobra attempted to swallow it hind end first. At the end of 

 that time it took the head in its mouth and swallowed it with 

 ease. Precisely the .same thing occurred with th^ third toad,^ 

 W^iich speaks badly for the reputed intelligence of the cobra. 

 k fourth and fifth toad followed, but I did not stay to witness 

 tiieir engorgement. Six days later this half-grown cobra had 

 resumed its normal proportions. 



Its dietary leads it to frequent the haunts of man, where it is 

 frequently found in sheds, fowl-houses, rubbish heaps, and tents. 

 In the bush they prefer to take up their abode in termite heaps^ 

 upon which they lie and bask in the morning sunshine. 



I know of a family residing near Nairobi in which nearl.y 

 every member, and many of the employees about the fa^-m, have 

 been spat at in the eyes at one time or another. I wish to 

 emphasise this point that the cobra deliberately aims at the face, 

 as only the other day I read in a journal that it was a. matter of 

 accident when the venom reached the eyes. The lady of the 

 Iipusehold referred to, on going to the fowl-house, Avhere it was 

 none too light, saw something dark in one of the boxes, and 

 supposing it to be a fow'l she bent over it and received a charge- 



