THE BIS COBRA, fA 
our houses and others in rocks and trees. This family contributes 
more bis cobras than all the rest put together. In the North-West 
Provinces, as I find froma letter from “Young Nimrod” in the Asian 
of November 28rd, 1880, all Geckos are called bis cobras indiscrimi- 
nately. Another correspondent of the same paper declares that the 
bis cobra par excellence of the North-Western frontier is Hardwick’s 
Gecko (Hublepharis Hardwickti, Gray), a stout-bodied nine inch 
hzard, which is not very common. The same species is also, accord~ 
ing to Dr. Shortt, the bis cobra of India. “ Some years ago,” he 
writes in an interesting note in the Madras Monthly Journal of Medi- 
cal Science, “I saw some articles in the Madras papers about 
this reptile (Hublepharis Hardwickit), which made it out to be the 
most poisonous creature with or without four legs, and one or two 
of the officers who were in service in Bengal mention that several sen- 
tries were found dead at their posts from the bite of some creature, 
which was afterwards found, and which I took to be, the bis cobrafrom 
the description they gave of it.”” In Burmah, again, there are two large 
Geckos (Gecko guttatus, Dana; and Gecko stentor, Cantor) which are 
widely believed to be exceedingly venomous, and are consequently 
held in great dread. These deadly reptiles are not, however, called 
bis cobras, or by any other names conveying an idea of their poison- 
ous vature. Their local name “ 'Tuctoo” is a very innocent one, and 
merely an imitation of the loud note with which they and other 
members of the same family frequently relieve their feelings; and 
which sounds like “tuck,” “ tuck,” “tuck,” repeated in a crescendo 
scale. Dr, Shortt had a specimen of Gecko guttatus sent to him for 
examination by a correspondent with the following description :— 
“This is the Tuckatoo of the Burmese, a large species of lizard found 
in Burmah, inhabiting trees and seldom ever seen, and heard only at 
dark and during the night: it is of a dark ash colour spotted with 
red, but the old ones are much darker in colour, as are also the 
spots. Their first cry begins with a croak, and then they sing out 
tuckatoo, tuckatoo, quite slow and thenin a quicker time. The 
same word is repeated for a few seconds, and then another croak, 
and all is still. Their voice is quite loud and hoarse and heard at a 
great distance. The Burmese, as well as other natives, dread 
this reptile, as their bite is poisonous, and their hold so tenacious 
that they can only be cut off the body of the person they fall on. 
The Burmese say that when any one is bitten their body swells to a 
great size, and they seldom live oyera day.” In Sonthern India again, 
