On serpent-worship and on the venomous snakes of India / by Sir Joseph Fayrer.

  • Joseph Fayrer
Date:
1892?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On serpent-worship and on the venomous snakes of India / by Sir Joseph Fayrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/236 (page 16)
    witli brown margin, a triangular, brown, black-edged spot behind the eye ; ventral surface yellowish, or marbled with more or less numerous semi-circular brown spots, on^ the hinder margin of the ventral shields. It attains a consider- able length, forty to fifty inches. It is common in Bengal, the south of India, Ceylon and Bnrmah, and probably may be found all over the plains and on the hills, up to G,000 feet, in Cashmir, but its usual habitat is lowei’. Fowls bitten by it sometimes die in less than a minute. It is nocturnal, is sluggish, and does not readily strike unless irritated, when it bites with great fury ; it hisses fiercely and strikes with great vigour. Its long movable fangs are very prominent ohjects, and with them it is capable ot inflicting deep, as well as poisoned wounds. It does not appear to cause many human deaths, but its misdeeds may be sometimes asci’ibed to the cobra, ddie daboia is said to kill cattle when grazing, by biting them about the nose or mouth. In proof of its sluggish nature, there is a well authenticated story of a voung person having picked one np, and mistaking it tor an innocent snake, carried it home. Its true nature y as discovered when it bit a dog. It had not attempted to injure the ]jerson who carried it. There is only one Indian species of cavinata (kuppur, afae). This snake is much smaller than the daboia, but grows to the length of 20 inches or more; it is terrestrial. It is found in the North-West Provinces, Punjab, Central Provinces, Scinde, and generally in the south ot India, in the Anamally Hills, in the Carnatic, and in the vicinity of Madras. It is of a brownish-grey colour, with a series of quadrangular or sub-ovate whitish spots, edged with dark brown; a semi- circular band on each side of the dorsal spots enclosing a round, dark-brown, lateral spot; a pair of oblong, brown, black-edged spots on the centre of the head, converging anteriorly; a brownish spot beloAv and a broad streak behind the eye ; ventral surface, whitish, with brown species. ^ The scales are keeled ; those on the lateral series have their tips directed downwards obliquely; the friction of these against each other causes a peculiar rustling sound. The Echis is a very fierce viper; it throws itselt into an attitude of defence and ofience, coiled up like a s}U’ing. rust- ling its carinated scales as it moves one fold ot the body against another. It does not wait to be attacked before darting its head and body at its enemy, the mouth vide open, and the long fangs vibrating, presenting a most menacing