BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
bis cobras. We have several specimens in our collection. The 
stuffed monitor before us is too large for a bis cobra. But young 
monitors, which are more conspicuously marked than their elders, 
by white ocellz and dark cross bands, are often called bis cobras in 
Sind and Cutch. The natives of Southern India are also said by 
Dr. Shortt to hold monitors in deadly fear, Not only is their bite 
fatal, but they hold on with such bull-dog tenacity, that they’ will 
not relinquish their enemy till a donkey brays, which soothing noise, 
according to local superstition, operates on them as a charm and 
turns away their wrath. It is needless to say that the monitor is 
quite innocent of venom, though its bite is no doubt severe, and 
though it can administer a very punishing stroke with its tail. 
Many funny stories are told of this species. Perhaps the funniest of 
all is the old Mabratta legend that the ancestor of the well-known 
family of Ghorpares, originally a Bhonsle, like Sivaji, changed his 
name to Ghorpare after a very daring exploit he achieved with the 
aid of a Ghorpad. This exploit was nothing less than the scaling 
of a fort in the Konkan—hitherto deemed impregnable—by availing 
himself of the services of a friendly Ghorpad to pull him up the wall 
by means of a rope fastened to the animal’s tail. Now these lizards 
have, as you see, very strong claws with which they can no doubt 
hold on even more firmly than with their teeth. Their skin is also 
remarkably tough, and for this reason is, I believe, in great demand 
for tom-toms. But I should not advise any enterprising member 
of this Society to follow the example of the ancestor of the Ghor- 
pares, at all events unless the ditch below the fort wall he selects 
for the experiment has a good ten feet of water init. Ghorpad—as 
perhaps you know—is eaten and thought a great delicacy in various 
parts of the country, especially in Ceylon. This seems strange 
~ considering the horror in which it is held in other parts. Kelaart, 
the naturalist, tells us that he had some excellent soup made of a 
Ghorpad, and that it tasted very like hare soup. ‘his, however, is 
another example which I should hardly recommend any one to follow. 
Another and more handsomely marked species of this same family, 
the ornate monitor (Psammosaurus scincus), the Chandengo of 
Guzerat, is also not unfrequently passed off as the bis cobra, prob- 
ably from its resemblance to the young of the common Ghorpad, 
Thus the monitors which are forked tongued lizards contribute at 
Jeast two species to the army of bis cobras. Next come the Geckos, 
with short thick tongues and adhesive toes, some of which live in 
