LENGTH OF SNAKES 
nessed the first disentangling of the hamadryad from 
the cobra as a distinct serpent. It was not until 1875 
that the first live specimen ever reached Europe. This 
individual arrived at the Zoological Gardens in that 
year, and survived for no less than twelve years. From 
that time to the present there have been many, and 
some of them large ones. Length in a serpent is a matter 
which is apt to be exaggerated. The one thing which 
a serpent has got to be is to be long. But with all the 
stretching in the world the hamadryad cannot be 
pulled out to more than fifteen feet, and twelve feet 
is perhaps a better estimate of its extreme length. 
With misleading pedantry the British Museum catalogue 
of snakes calls it 3,900 millimetres! No creature that 
is not enclosed in a hard box like a tortoise or an insect 
can be measured with such absolute accuracy. The 
colour above is brown to black, with a whitish belly, 
and in young examples there are yellow bands. It has 
been pointed out in the case of the cobra that legend 
has it that the blacker specimens are the more ferocious. 
Melanism, or a darkening of normal hues, is a not 
uncommon phenomenon in the animal world; but to 
associate it with a correspondingly increased fierceness 
is perhaps making the creature out to be blacker than 
Nature has painted it. Nevertheless, we learn from 
the poet that the dark-coloured South is “ fierce and 
fickle.” 
The name hamadryad is plainly to be derived from 
the tree-frequenting habits of Ophiophagus bungarus, 
as the full scientific name runs. From this “ bad 
eminence ”’ the serpent is said to look out for a coolie, 
and then to descend upon him in an unexpected shower 
of writhing coils. Exaggeration apart, it does seem 
to be proved that during the breeding season, that 
time of fierce irritability in many beasts and birds, the 
hamadryad is more apt to lose its temper, and to 
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