Ex Africa
My postbag is continually illustrating the old dictum that out of Africa is always coming something new and strange. Here is the latest: a small rough-skinned lizard of the species known as Kogelmander was seen to kill a banded cobra near Umvana :r1 Southern Rhodesia. The lizard, which was only four inches
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rmg, lay in front of the snake. Every time the snake struck, the lizard moved like lightning and bit it behind the head. After it had done this six times the snake collapsed. The lizard then Walked cautiously round it and nipped it here and there. Evidently satisfied that the cobra was dead, it scuttled away as if nothing of any consequence had happened. The snake, which Was 5 ft 7 ins. long, was killed in less than to minutes. In Britain we know little about snakes; but I have seen an adder violently attacked by a hedge sparrow, whose nest it threatened; and both adders and grass snakes have been killed by hedge-
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