86 NAJA VULGARIS. 



and still more of the scuta unusually blueish. Abdominal scuta 184 ; 

 subcaudal squamae 57. 



The Cobra di Capello, it is observed, is everywhere exhibited 

 publicly as a show in India. It is carried about in a covered basket, 

 and so managed by its proprietors as to assume a kind of dancing 

 motion ; raising itself upon its lower part, and alternately moving 

 its head and body from side to side for some minutes to the sound 

 of some musical instrument which is played during the time. The 

 Indian jugglers, who thus exhibit the animal, first deprive it of its 

 fangs, which renders it incapable of inflicting a poisonous wound 

 by means of its bite. 



Dr. Russel, in his account of various experiments made in India 

 with this serpent, assures us that as a general standard for the 

 comparison of the effects of its bite with that of other poisonous 

 serpents, he never knew it prove mortal to a dog in less than 

 twenty-seven minutes, and to a chicken in less than half a minute. 

 Thus, fatal as it is, its poison seems not so speedy in its operation 

 as that of the Rattle-snake, which has been known to kill a dog in 

 less than two minutes. The following interesting observations are 

 related by Dr. Russel to confirm the accuracy of this observation. 



In the month of June 1787, a dog bitten by a Cobra di Capello 

 on the inside of the thigh, howled at first, as if in severe pain ; 

 after two or three minutes he lay down, continuing to howl and 

 moan ; after 20 minutes he rose, but with much difficulty, being 

 unable to walk, and his whole frame appeared greatly disordered. 

 He soon lay down again, and in a few minutes was seized with 

 convulsions, in which he expired 27 minutes after. This is the only 

 instance mentioned in which the poisonous bite of the Cobra di 

 Capello proved fatal to dogs in much less than the space of an 

 hour. — A large and very stout dog was bitten by another Cobra di 

 Capello on the inside of the thigh, which in a minute or two was 

 drawn up, the first symptom in general of the poison having taken 

 effect. He continued, however, nearly half an hour longer walking 

 on the three remaining legs, seeming not otherwise disordered; but 

 after this time he laid himself along in great inquietude, his head 

 and throat being convulsed in an uncommon degree ; he made 



