THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 1858, 1 July 1887, Page 34

THE NATURALIST.

White Houses— Mr E. Birch, of Dublin, raises a curious question in a Home paper. He writes : — " Ab Southport, Liverpool, there are a great many horses for the use o£ visitors to ride on the sands there ; they: are all white., A friend stopping there for a month could not help noticing this, and a3ked the question why were they'all white; The answer was, ' They are white from age.' Well, there are plenty of white horses four years of age and upwards. Now the question is, did anyone ever see a white foal, and if not, when do they become white ? As this seems to be a poser to all the_horse dealers that I have spoken to, and, also to the veterinary surgeons,- I shall be glad if some of > your readers can give the answer." .

Sight and Scent in Bibds,— Recent observations have inclined., naturalists ito the belief that birds of prey have not the acute sense, of smell with which they were once accredited. Their acute sight seems better to accountff or their actions, and they appear to be guided by sight alone, as they never sniff at anything, but dart straight at the object of their desire. Their counterparts in the ocean, however, undoubtedly see and smell equally well, but are more guided by smell than sight. In sharks and rays both the eyes are good, and have a very distinct, expression; though they scent their prey from ' a distance, and swim up to it with great rapidity.

About Cobras. — An Indian officer writes in Chambers' Journal : — " While at home on furlough from India a short time ago, I was much amused at finding a very general impression among my friends that to come across a cobra is an every-day kind of occurrence in India. How erroneous this idea is may be gathered from the fact that not many days ago a brother-officer told me that although he had been about ten years in India, he had never yet seen a cobra in a wild state. His is, it is true, probably an exceptional case ; but still it shows that an .'Englishman may pass a considerable time in India without coming across one of these venomous reptiles. Cobras, however, are met with quite often enough, and sometimes in very curious and uncomfortable places. For instance, a younglady who had just returned from a ball in a small station in Southern India, noticed, as she was on the point of getting into bed, that the pillow looked disarranged ; and on taking it up to smooth it out, she discovered a cobra coiled up underneath it. She called out for assistance ; and her father coming to the rescue, speedily despatched the obnoxious intruder with a stick. ., I happened to mention this circumstance to an officer one day, and be informed me that the very same thing had happened to himself soon after his first arrival in the country, and that, in consequence, he never got into bed until he had examined the pillow's. In the year 1873, while quartered at Bellary, on going into the drawing room of the bungalow, which at that time I shared with a friend, I discovered a cobra curled up on the sofa cushion. , I hastened out of the room to fetch a stick ; bur in doing so, I must, I suppose, have made some noise, as on returning the' snake had disappeared. A few evenings later, however, just as my ' chum' was leaving the house to go out to dinner, he called out to me that there was a snake crawling up the steps of the veranda in front of the drawing room. I ran out with a stick, and succeeded in killing the unwelcome visitor. It turned out to be a fairly large cobra, and was in all probability the one which I had seen a fewdays previously on the sofa. It is, however, in the bathrooms of a Indian bungalow that cobras, when met with within doors, are most frequently encountered, as they come there in pursuit of the frogs which delight to take up their quarters there ; for froggy is an article of diet to which the cobra .is very partial. An officer of the Madras cavalry, since deceased, told me that when quartered at Arcot, he one clay observed in his, bathroom, emerging from the waste-water pipe, [ the head of a cobra, which was holding in his mouth a frog. The pipe was too narrow to admit of the snake's withdrawing his head unless he released his victim ; this however, from unwillingness to forego his meal, he > would not do, and in consequence, paid the penalty for his gluttony with his life." One day, my wife's ayah camerunninginto our bedroom, saying there was a large snake in the bathroom. Arming myself as usual 1 with a stick. I went into the bathroom just in time to see the snake disappear into the waste-water pipe, which ran under another small room to the back of the house, where the water found its outlet. The servants stationed themselves at the outlet, while I endeavoured to drive the lvptile out from the rear, first with my stick, and afterwards by pouring the contents of a kettle of boiling water down the pipe. Both attempts to dislodge the intruder from his position proving ineffectual, I commenced a vigorous assault on him by thrusting a bamboo about five feet long down the pipe, and this time ! success rewarded my efforts, and the snake, driven from hisf refuge, was killed by the servants outside. This cobra measured about five feet six inches in length, and was the largest that I have ever seen killed. I may here mention that the ordinary ideas about the size attained by this species of snake are greatly exaggerated. Some years I ago, a surgeon-major serving in the Madras I presidency, with whom I was acquainted, ■ took a great interest in, this matter, and offered a considerable reward to any one who would bring him a cobra six feet in length ; but, if my memory serves me right, the ! reward was never gained, although ,a very large number of cobras were produced for his inspection.

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