Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-05-09
THE NAJA-KALLU.
a Curious Stone Used by Cobras
to Attract Fire-Flies.
The Green Light Which 1t Emits
Acts as a Decoy.

The cobras are perhaps the only SER
penis which will cat insects. They
feed Oh ants, grasshoppcrs. variety of
beetles, etc., but seem TO have n spe cial
preference for fire. flies. perhaps because
tho latter can be caught at night much
more easily than any other kind of in
ct. hive often for hours watched
cobras in the grass catching the fire.
flies. darling about hero aud there.
procc which requires considerable en-
ertion Oh the pa;t of the scr pcnt Now,
every cntomologist know that the fly
ing lampyridn consist entirely of males.
The females, which arc not very numcr-
Gus, are much larger and cannot fly, as
they have only rudimcntary wings.
They sit quietly in tho grass, emitting
grccnish light, which is much strong
CT than that of the ma'cs, and fades
and becomes brilliant at regular inter.
va's. If a glow-worm be watched for
time, a steady cur rent of male insects
will be observed flying toward it, and
alishting in close proximity.
Now it so happens that the naja- kali
III, little pebble of chloro phanc or
fiuor- spar, cmi;s in the dark grccnish
light, which is so much like that f the
female lampyris that is an easy matter
to deceive the male fire fly with it, by
setting it up as decoy. The cobras
have gradually come to take advantage
OF an experience made by them, acct.
dcntally, dare say, thousands of years
ago. II may frequently happen, for in
stance, that Il cobra finds one of these
shining stones in the gravel of the dry
rivcr-bcds (wherc they are by no means
uncommon), being attracted t o it by its
glow at night, and taking il fer glow
worm. 1t would then, at any rate,
notice that the fire. les cou be caught
much more easily and quickly in the
ncighborhood of that sh ming OBJ
ject than anywhere else and
would habitually return TO
it. Several cobras might thu, come
together. and there would be compcti.
ton, and from this moment to the find
ing out that SUCCESS in capturing ii re-
flies depends on the possession of this
phosphorcsccnt pebble, and to the Viz
ing of it in order to prevent another
snake from monopolizing it, is, in my
opinion, no great step, and involves no
exceptional powers of reasoning. Tho
cobra carries it about, aud soon learns
to treasure it, for it affords it al easy
means of getting its living. All it has
to do is to deposit the stone in the
grass at night, and the oblging insects
literally fly down its throat
There are even reasons for believing
that no individual experience is now
necessary to cause any cobra to act in
this manner, but that even young
cobra, on finding such stone, will in.
stinctively take it up. and use it in the
manner have described. For il must
be borne in mind that there is an in.
herited race memory anon the over
animals which is often far stronger than
the memory gathered during the short
lifetime of the indiv lual What
causes blind kitten to spit and put ip
its back if dog is brought near it' Il
never saw dog, never saw anything.
yet it knows there is some danger
ahead. Thus the accumulated expert
cnce of the cobra's anccst tors during
countless generations now causes it to
act in a manner which we refer to in
stinct
Su CHI are the remarkable facts con.
nected with the naja- kallu, the cobra's
shining stone. Who can tell whether
the old traditions of snake, CARVING
precious stones, of which VIC still find
traces in our fairy tales, may not have
their source in some such fact as thisa-
Hdrpsr's Mdoazine.