NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 165 
two Cobras were placed together in a cage, they would sometimes 
strike at each other for hours with their noses, and would blow 
their venom and saliva from their mouths; but he had never seen 
one bite another, although he had kept a large number of them 
in cages convenient for observation. 
Of the great numbers of deaths (some thousands) occurring an- 
nually from Cobras, the bites were almost always received when 
people stepped upon them. 
Until very recently it was almost universally supposed that the 
poison of the Cobra had no effect on the mongoose, an animal re- 
sembling the weasel. It was well known that the mongoose would 
attack and kill the Cobra, and would sometimes eat a large part of 
the body, but in these encounters the mongoose, by his great agil- 
ity, could easily avoid being bitten; and Mr. Sceva had found, on 
examining a Cobra-which had been killed by a mongoose, that all 
the wounds had been inflicted back of the head. When, however, 
the mongoose was secured, and a Cobra was compelled to bite its 
leg, by having it put into the snake’s mouth, the mongoose died in 
a very short time. 
Mr. Sceva added, that since making the experiment with the fro- 
zen poison, he had found that a similar one had been made on the 
venom of the rattlesnake by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell of Philadelphia. 
Dr. Mitchell also found that neither boiling nor a putrefactive 
change destroyed its poisonous action. These experiments have 
also been made with the venom of the Cobra with like results. 
DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS IN THE Sourn Seas. — Having pre- 
viously explored nearly every South Sea group, I was surprised at 
the superior richness of the Viti Islands, as compared to the other 
locations. Of shells alone, I got about fourteen hundred species, 
and new ones were occurring, up to the time of my departure. 
have not the least doubt but that the group will produce six hun- 
dred species more. At the Navigators I found nearly eight hun- 
dred species. Tahiti produced five hundred. So it is evident that 
the nearer we approach the East Indies the richer the Islands be- 
come in shells. The same rule applies to every other department 
of Natural History. : 
Since I have been collecting in the South Seas I have ascer- 
tained that nearly every group has some species of marine shells 
peculiar to that one location, and which do not occur elsewhere. 
