THE PRINCIPAL SPECIES OF POISONOUS SNAKES 39 



food. The Hindu in question happened to be on the flat roof of 

 his house, when a young Hamadryad appeared quite close to him. 

 The snake raised its head, expanded its neck, and emitted a shrill 

 hissing noise. Thereupon a dozen snakes came crawling up from 

 all directions and assembled round the Hamadryad, when the 

 latter made a dart at one of them and hastened to devour it 

 (Fayrer) . 



The Hamadryad is dreaded with good reason, for not only is 

 it aggressive, and hurls itself boldly upon its adversary, but it also 

 pursues him, a trait exhibited by no other poisonous snake. 



Cantor relates that in Assam an officer met with several young 

 Hamadryads which were being watched over by their mother. The' 

 latter turned towards its enemy, who took to his heels with all 

 speed, pursued by the terrible reptile. The course taken led to a 

 river, which the fugitive did not hesitate to swim in order to gain 

 the opposite bank, hoping thus to make good his escape ; all, 

 however, to no purpose. The snake still pursued him, and the 

 officer saved himself only by a stratagem. He dashed his turban 

 on the ground ; the snake threw itself upon it and savagely bit 

 it several times, thus giving the officer time to reach a place of 

 safety. 



Cantor's experiments show that the venom of the Hamadryad 

 is extremely rapid in its action. A dog usually dies a quarter of an 

 hour after being bitten, and Nicholson states that he has seen an 

 elephant bitten by a snake of this species die in three hours. 



(c) Hemibungarus. 



This genus includes several species of snakes of somewhat small 

 size, rarely exceeding 700 milHmetres in length, with an elongate, 

 cylindrical body ; the head is scarcely distinct from the neck, the 

 pupil round, and the tail short, while the nostril is situate between 

 two nasal shields. The temporal shields are arranged in a single 

 row. The poison-glands sometimes extend into the abdominal 



