100 THE SNAKE-EATING HAMADRYAD. 



passing notices of the snake in question ; but Dr. Fayrer's mag- 

 nificent work on the Tha na top India or poisonous snakes of the 

 Indian peninsula furnishes the fullest information respecting 

 the appearance, habits and powers of its Indian congener. 

 Without this latter work, indeed, positive identification would 

 have been almost impossible, so necessary are accurate engrav- 

 ings to all who would endeavour to satisfactorily determine the 

 species or family of animals hitherto undescribed, as our "Fellow 

 Colonists" in Singapore. Let me therefore summarize the ac- 

 counts given in these books of the formidable serpent I am 

 about to describe : — 



• 

 Louis Figuier's works will be familiar to many hearers. Cover- 

 ing a vast extent of ground they are essentially " popular" and 

 as such of value, though it is seldom that the specialist can, in 

 these lively volumes, find much that will serve his purposes in 

 the way of scientific accuracy. I was however glad to find (as 

 a beginning,) that M. Figuier's English Editor (Mr. Gillmore) 

 had added to the original volume an interesting paragraph res- 

 pecting 1 the Hamadryad under notice. He describes it as having 

 a less developed hood than the true cobra, and having a single 

 small tooth placed at some distance behind the fang. The only 

 species he says, "attains to thirteen feet in length and is pro- 

 portionally formidable being much less timid and retiring in 

 its habits than the Cobras of the genus Naja. It preys habitu- 

 ally on other snakes and seems to be more plentiful eastward of 

 the Bay of Bengal than it is in India." Mr. Gillmore then cites 

 instances of its capture in Burmah &c, mentioning' a case in which 

 an elephant succumbed to its poison in three hours, and he corn- 

 eludes his brief notice by stating that " it appears not to be 

 "'uncommon in the Andaman islands, while its range of (list ri- 

 " bution extends though the Malay countries to the Philippines 

 " and to New Guinea." This is in fact all that is said of the 

 most deadly reptile inhabiting the Asiatic continent. The 

 statement that it extended " through the Malay countries, 

 however, justified me in believing that I should eventual- 

 ly comeupon a more detailed description. Mr. David-on informed 

 me that museum specimens were rare from two causes ; one, that 

 few natives acquainted with its terrible powers cared to attempt 

 its capture ; the other that when a specimen was observed, such 

 strenuous efforts were made to destroy the reptile, that its after 

 preservation as a specimen was impossible. A headless or 

 crushed snake presents but a sorry object, and the outward re- 

 semblance of the Hamadryad to innocuous species has, I doubt 

 not, led before this to its rejection by these unacquainted with 

 its (Museum) rarity. 



