SPITTING COBRAS 
61 
NOTES 
ON SPITTING COBRAS 
By S. W. J. Scholefield 
The blackish-grey cobra snake is well known to the Akamba 
as a spitting snake. It is called Kiko by them. They have 
three snakes all called Kiko, all of which are hooded and all of 
which spit. 
Another ‘ Kiko 5 is a shiny black one with, as far as I 
remember, a yellowish throat. One of these I killed in the 
boys’ quarters of the ‘ Paper House ’ at Nairobi after it had 
put two boys hors de combat with its saliva. 
I did not see it extend its hood, as I was looking for no 
trouble in the rather dark boys’ room where the snake had 
taken up its quarters underneath a bed. It was coiled up 
when I fired and it was picked up in three pieces. All the 
natives present told me it was a cobra, i.e. that it was a hooded 
snake. It was about five feet long and fairly thick. 
The olive-brown cobra (I think it is the same as the South 
African Ringhals) I have myself seen spit. 
When I was in occupation of Mr. Fletcher’s House just 
beyond the Polo Ground, Nairobi, my boy told me there was 
a snake at the annexe. I took a revolver, and as it wriggled 
along the verandah I fired, breaking its back and sending it 
off the verandah. On approaching, it deliberately spat at me, 
but being a young snake and with its back broken, the saliva 
only reached about two feet. 
The Ringhals of South Africa attains a much greater 
length than the five feet mentioned by Mr. Hobley as being 
the length of Niger nigricollis. If I recollect rightly, two shot 
in the Kalahari measured 7 feet 10 inches and 8 feet 2 inches 
respectively. 
The brown mamba attains a length of much more than 
10 feet. One killed in an ant-heap which had been scooped out 
to make an oven at Old Palla Camp on the Crocodile (Limpopo) 
River was, if I recollect rightly, over 14 feet. The pace at 
which they travel is, or seems to be, tremendous. 
The Akamba name for the olive-brown or copper-coloured 
