Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/140

 passing notices of the snake in question; but Dr. Fayrer's mag- nificent work on the Thanatophidia 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 engravings 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 accounts 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 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 proportionably formidable being much less timid and retiring in its habits than the Cobras of the genus Naja. It preys habitually on other snakes and seems to be more plentiful eastward of the Bay of Bengal than it is in India." Mr. Gillmore then eites instances of its capture in Burmah &c., mentioning a case in which an elephant succumbed to its poison in three hours, and he concludes bis brief notice by stating that "it appears not to be uncommon in the Andaman islands, while its range of distribution 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 eventually come upon 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 resemblance of the Hamadryad to innocuous species has, I doubt not, led before this to its rejection by these unacquainted with its (Museum) rarity.