How the Cobra Got His Spectacles
John Wood shares the wonder of the Indian cobra’s hood, in science and in myth.
first published 1853
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
John Wood shares the wonder of the Indian cobra’s hood, in science and in myth.
first published 1853
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
By profession, JG Wood was a clergyman, but he had a gift for making science accessible to ordinary people. From the early 1850s, he was in demand as an author and lecturer on natural history both at home and abroad: he delivered the prestigious Lowell Lectures in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1883-84. In this passage, he takes a look at the hooded cobra, in the light of anatomy and of India’s sacred legends.
ONE notable peculiarity in the Cobra is the expansion of the neck, popularly called the hood. This phenomenon is attributable, not only to the skin and muscles, but to the skeleton. About twenty pairs of the ribs of the neck and fore part of the back are flat instead of curved, and increase gradually from the head to the eleventh or twelfth pair, from which they decrease until they are merged into the ordinary curved ribs of the body. When the Snake is excited, it brings these ribs forward so as to spread the skin, and then displays the oval hood to best advantage. In this species, the back of the hood is ornamented with two large eye-like spots, united by a curved black stripe, so formed that the whole mark bears a singular resemblance to a pair of spectacles.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Where are the India cobra’s ‘spectacles’ to be found?
On the back of its expandable hood.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
The cobra had marks on its hood. There are two circles joined by a line. They look like spectacles.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IBridge. IIEye. IIIWear.