54 
POPULAR SCIENCE REYIEW. 
The Cobra is the most celebrated of venomous snakes. It 
deserves to occupy the post of honour among the lower animals. 
For man is the great persecutor of living creatures, and the 
cobra has killed more men than has any other animal, save 
man himself. Power gains respect, and we cannot therefore 
wonder that in some parts of India this terrible snake is super- 
stitiously protected by the ignorant natives. It is the favourite 
of snake-charmers, because of its imposing aspect, and of the 
ease with which their skill enables them to handle it, even when 
not deprived of its fangs. 
The Cobra “ is by no means confined to the continent and 
Ceylon, being found in a number of the larger islands of the 
Archipelago. It extends eastwards to the Sutlej, and westwards 
to the Chinese island of Chusan. Singularly, it has never been 
observed by Mr. Hodgson in the valley of Nepal, but occurs in 
different parts of the Himalayas, reaching an altitude of 8,000 
feet in Sikkim. It attains to a length of 5 feet,* feeding on 
small mammals and birds, on lizards, frogs, toads, and fishes ; 
in order to obtain its prey it occasionally climbs trees or the 
roofs of huts ; it is an expert swimmer, and is sometimes found 
at a considerable distance out at sea. It is more a nocturnal 
animal than a diurnal one, and ovoviviparous. Its chief enemies 
are the jungle fowl, which destroy the young brood, and the 
Herpestes or ichneumons, which will attack and master tlie 
largest Cobra : in districts where the Cobras or other venomous 
snakes have too much increased in number, the most efficient 
way of destroying them is to protect their natural enemies. 
“ The Cobra, the most common venomous snake of India, is 
so much an object of dread to the natives, of wonder to the 
Europeans, and of profit to the numerous itinerant snake- 
charmers, that it has become as celebrated an animal as its 
cousin, the Naja haje, which was a symbol of female divinities 
among the ancient Egyptians. Almost every writer on the 
natural productions of the East Indies has contributed to the 
natural history of this snake, which has been surrounded by 
such a number of evidently fabulous stories that their repetition 
and contradiction would fill a volume. 
“ This snake is frequently brought to Europe, and will live 
* Dr. Giinther, from whose great work on the Peptiles of British India 
(p. 340) the above extract is made, here speaks cautiously, within the limits 
of his own knowledge. His estimate of the Cobra’s size is, however, too 
moderate. Dr. Fayrer mentions a living specimen “five feet eight inches 
long, including the tail, which measures eleven and a quarter inches. In 
girth it is six and a quarter inches. It is very powerful and fierce, and Dr. 
Beatson tells me that it killed a fowl in one minute. This is the largest 
Cobra I have seen, but I believe they attain even a greater size than 
this.’’ 
