686 JOUIi^^AL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
In the course of the evening, near the village of Persanni, in British Territory, 
the Prince encountered a Hamadryad or King Cobra which he luckily killed. The 
party were walking up jungle fowl at the time. H.R. H. first shot at the snake 
as it was moving away and apparently hit it, for the brute turned and appeared 
to be about to attack him \vhen he killed it with his second barrd. The snake 
was brought into camp with the rest of the daj^'s bag. It was first assumed that 
it was an ordinary Rat Snake or Dhaman when examined in the fading light. 
Subsequently when the skin was examined at the Society’s Museum in Bombay 
the identity of the reptile was revealed. The Prince’s King Cobra taped 10' 3". 
The Hamadiyad, the largest known poisonous snake in the world, grows to about 
15' in length. The record specimen now in the Society’s Museum measures 
15' 5". Much has been written about the ferocity of the King Cobra, and its 
projxsnsity for making an unprovoked attack. When cornered a King Cobra 
may show fight, or a female will very probably attack should her nest or eggs bo 
endangered, but experience has shown that these serpents under ordinary cir- 
cumstances usually seek safety in flight. 
On the 21st morning a party consisting of Lord Louis Mountbatten, Sir 
Godfrey Thomas, Admiral Halsey, Col. Worgan, Commander Newport, Col. 
Harvey and Mr. A. Metcalfe went down to Dhoba near the 20th milestone 
where a tiger had been ringed. The following is an extract from Sir Godfrey 
Thomas’s Diary ■ — 
“ The ring was in very thick jungle and we spent sometime in getting 
the elephants to trample down a patch in front of each gun. Nothing 
happened for sometime till we got a fright when a big pig suddenly dashed 
out. Shortly afterwards we heard a tiger woofing in the middle but he 
could not be seen. Suddenly he appeared in the same place as the pig, and was 
just coming out when Mr. Metcalfe got him with a very good shot in the 
head. He could not see where he fell but he subsequently proved to be 
stone dead. Metcalfe was all for getting down to have a look at him but 
as they shouted out that there was another tiger in the ring we quickly 
resumed our places. Sure enough a tigress came dashing out again by an 
extraordinary’ coincidence right in front of us. Metcalfe missed with his 
first shot whereupon the beast charged the elephants on our left. There 
was a regular mix up, elephants trumpeting, squealing and going in every 
direction. I did not dare fire but Metcalfe took what looked like a pretty 
dangerous second shot, apparently without result. By then all the elephants 
had cleared off and seeing a gap the tigress went straight through. I turned 
round in my howdah and got a broadside shot just as she was disappearing, 
and thought I hit but couldn’t be absolutely certain. However they swung 
the elephant round and made a big ring round the place she was going to. 
They beat about in the middle for sometime V’ithout anything happening. 
I thought she had probably slipped right through, a,s had she been wounded, 
they would have known it properly. However they suddenly discovered 
her quite dead having burrowed right under some grass so as to be prac- 
tically’ invisible. Metcalfe and I were lucky’ in getting both beasts from 
the same elephant. My shot had gone right through about 6" behind the 
shoulder.” 
All the shooting was fiirished by 6 p.m. and the evening was spent in saying 
good-bye. H. H. The Maharaja and his sons went dou’n to Bikna Thori station 
to see the Royal Party off and the Roy'al Train steamed out of Bikna Thoii 
station at 6-30 p.m. 
Thus ended H. R. H. the Prince of Wales’ shoot in the Nepal Terai which 
certainly’ for the colossal scale on which it was carried out is to be ranked 
among the greatest in the annals of big game shooting in this country’. 
