FRESH-WATER SNAKES. 229 



see before it, and also below — that is, down into the 

 waters. 



On first sight it might be a matter of wonder that so large 

 a serpent should condescend to a meal of rats and mice ; 

 but to explain this we must again go back to the early 

 naturalists, when we discover that what Seba called le rat 

 d' Ameriqiie was a rodent quite worth constricting for dinner. 

 Under the order Miiridce were included in those days a 

 number of the larger rodents, such as the Paca, Mus 

 Braziliensis ; the Coypu, Mus coy pus ; Myopotamus, the 

 Capybara ; the Murine opossum, and several others, aquatic 

 in their habits, and large enough to attract the 'Giant of 

 the Waters.' 



From the vernacular Matatoro, or ' Bull killer,' also a 

 whole century of misrepresentations have arisen, the said 

 'bull' being really as small in proportion as the 'rats' and 

 ' mice ' were large. * The deer swallowcr ' is another of its 

 local titles, showing that it is a serpent of varying tastes. 

 Stories are told of this ' monster ' killing itself in attempting 

 to gorge large animals with enormously extended horns, 

 animals not to be found among the Brazilian fauna ; and 

 familiar to most persons are the illustrations of anacondas 

 of untraceable length, the posterior portion coiled round a 

 branch fifty feet high, and the anterior coiled round a 

 bull as big as a prize ox. These illustrations are the off- 

 spring of ignorance rather than reality, and though occa- 

 sionally Etuiectes might come to grief by attacking a 

 somewhat unmanageable meal, yet its recognised specific, 

 vmrinus or murina, points more clearly the true nature of 

 its food, viz. rodents of at most some two feet long. 



