OF WILD ANIMALS 201 



tiles Raymond L. Ditmars regards the huge king cobra of the 

 Malay Peninsula, the largest of all poisonous serpents, as 

 quite the wisest serpent known to him. He says its mind is 

 alert and responsive to a very imusual degree in serpents, and 

 that it manifests a keen interest in everything that is going on 

 aroimd it, especially at feeding-time. This is quite the reverse 

 of the usual sluggish and apathetic serpent mind in captivity. 



Incidentally, I would like very much to know just what our 

 present twelve-foot cobra thought when, upon its arrival at 

 its present home, its total blindness was relieved by the 

 thrillingly skilful removal of the two layers of dead scales that 

 had closed over and finally adhered to each orbit. 



The vision of the king cobra is keen, and its temper is not 

 easily ruffled. Its temperament seems to be sanguine, which 

 is just the opposite of the nervous-combative hooded and 

 spectacled cobra species. 



The So-called "Snake Charmers" of India. Herpe- 

 tologists generally discredit the idea that a peripatetic Hindu 

 can "charm" a cobra any farther or more quickly than any 

 snake-keeper. In the first place, the fangs of the serpent are 

 totally removed, — ^by a very savage and painful process. 

 After that, the unfortunate snake is in no condition to fight 

 or to flee. It seeks only to be let alone, and the musical-pipe 

 business is to impress the mind of the observer. 



Serpent Psychology an Unplowed Field. At this date 

 (1922) we know only the rudiments of serpent intelligence and 

 temperament. In the wilds, serpents are most elusive and 

 difficult to determine. In captivity they are passive and 

 undemonstrative. We do not know how much memory they 

 have, they rarely show what they think, and on most subjects 

 we do not know where they stand. But the future will change 

 all this. During the past twenty years the number of herpe- 

 tologists in the United States has increased about tenfold. It 

 is fairly impossible that serpent psychology should much 



