I have seldom had occasion to allude to snakes, which are rare and
shy in most parts of the Himalaya; I, however, found an extremely
venomous one at Choongtam; a small black viper, a variety of the
cobra di capello,* [Dr. Gray, to whom I am indebted for the following
information, assures me that this reptile is not specifically
distinct from the common Cobra of India; though all the mountain
specimens of it which he has examined retain the same small size and
dark colour. Of the other Sikkim reptiles which I procured seven are
_Colubridae_ and innocuous; five _Crotalidae_ are venomous, three of
which are new species belonging to the genera _Parias_ and
_Trimesurus._ Lizards are not abundant, but I found at Choongtam a
highly curious one, _Plestiodon Sikkimensis,_ Gray; a kind of Skink,
whose only allies are two North American congeners; and a species of
_Agama_ (a chameleon-like lizard) which in many important points more
resembled an allied American genus than an Asiatic one. The common
immense earth-worm of Sikkim, _Ichthyophis glutinosus,_ is a native
of the Khasia mountains, Singapore, Ceylon and Java. It is a most
remarkable fact, that whereas seven out of the twelve Sikkim snakes
are poisonous, the sixteen species I procured in the Khasia mountains
are innocuous.] which it replaces in the drier grassy parts of the
interior of Sikkim, the large cobra not inhabiting in the mountain
regions. Altogether I only collected about twelve species in Sikkim,
seven of which are venomous, and all are dreaded by the Lepchas.
An enormous hornet (_Vespa magnifica,_ Sm.), nearly two inches long,
was here brought to me alive in a cleft-stick, lolling out its great
thorn-like sting, from which drops of a milky poison distilled: its
sting is said to produce fatal fevers in men and cattle, which may
very well be the case, judging from that of a smaller kind, which
left great pain in my hand for two days, while a feeling of numbness
remained in the arm for several weeks. It is called Vok by the