[Pg.; = ‘snake with hood, hood-snake.’ Pg. cobra:—L. colubra snake; capello hood, F. chapeau. Various inaccurate representations of the Pg., as cobra capello, capella, di capello, occur.]
The Hooded or Spectacle Snake (Naja tripudians), a very venomous serpent found in India and adjacent countries, remarkable for its power of dilating the neck and sides of the head when irritated, so as to produce the resemblance of a hood.
1668. Phil. Trans., III. 863. Serpents which have an Head on each end of their Body, called Capra Capella. Ibid. (1671), VI. 3093. Another sort, called Cobres Capellos, the most venomous of all. Ibid. (1693), XVII. 765. That Indian Serpent, call’d by the Portugueses Cobra Copello, whose flat Head is mark’d with the Figure of a pair of Spectacles.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., IV. 126. The cobra di capello or hooded serpent.
1860. H. Gouger, 2 Yrs. Impris. in Burmah, xxiii. 264. It was a large cobra capello, nearly four feet long.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. V. i. 259. The Spectacled Serpent, properly so called, or the Cobra de Capello.
