, NATURALIST IN INDIA. 19 



and about 5 feet in length, abounds in gardens ; on that ac- 

 count one is often obliged to ride on horseback after nightfall, 

 when numbers may be seen crawling about in the roads and 

 gardens, searching for frogs, on which they principally feed. 

 There is a green species, 2|- feet in length, said by the natives 

 to be very venomous. My attention was directed to a cir- 

 cumscribed swelling in the centre of the body of one of these 

 serpents, which on dissection proved to be a frog, fuUy three 

 times as broad as any other part of the snake's body. Two 

 minute wounds on the frog's back were the only marks of 

 violence discernible. 



The cobra di capella is tamed, and taught to dance to 

 the pan-pipe-like sounds of a sort of ilageolet. It is said to be 

 plentiful in the cactus hedges, which seem to be a " rendez- 

 vous" for all kinds of snakes and vermin. One sultry day, 

 while seated under an acacia tree, I heard a hissing sound be- 

 hind me, and turning, saw a cobra close by, with raised head 

 and inflated hood, knocking its nose against the stem of a 

 cactus. One of the first injimctions a native servant gives his 

 newly-arrived master is, " always to shake his hoots well before 

 puttirig them on," scorpions being apt to take up their abode 

 in the toe ! 



A green lizard is common in gardens, and on the thatch of 

 bungalows : it preys on scorpions, especially a small black 

 species, abundant beneath stones and the matting of rooms. 

 Centipedes of large size are very plentiful. 



The moongus, or gray ichneumon {H&rpestes griseus), is 

 found in this district, and frequently domesticated. It is 

 exceedingly useful in destroying centipedes and scorpions, but 

 I have never seen it attack serpents ; and the story regarding 

 the antidote it obtains for snake-bites in the root of a certain 



