THE XE NO DONS. 399 



ment as he motioned with his hand towards a stran^^er 

 by his side. The name of Dr. Arthur Stradh'ng, a Corre- 

 sponding Member of the Zoological Society, was already 

 known to me. Though personally unacquainted, he had, 

 indeed, through the columns of Land and Water ^ replied to 

 some communications of my own. This informal intro- 

 duction, therefore, led easily to the exchange of a few 

 words about this contradictory 'Jararaca,' the name by 

 which — as he assured me — the snake was known in Brazil. 

 He had not, he said, examined the mouth of this snake 

 during the voyage home, knowing its deadly character ; 

 and had simply accepted it as the * Jarraracca,' accord- 

 ing to its Brazilian vernacular. I ventured to point out 

 the non-viperine aspect of the so-called * deadly ' reptile 

 before us, and suggested that if it were indeed venomous 

 it could only be an elaps, also that there were probably 

 several that were known by this name. This led to a 

 correspondence, both by letter and through the columns of 

 Land and Water (Oct. 1880), on the subject of vernacular 

 names ; but as these belong more especially to the ensuing 

 chapter, I need only say here that Dr. Stradling returned to 

 Brazil determined to investigate this confusion of names, and 

 I thus gained a valuable ally in my endeavours to identify 

 some of the perplexing vernaculars of Brazil w^ith the 

 scientific descriptions. 



On a subsequent voyage, Dr. Stradling obtained three 

 more of these so-called Jararacas, and described them by 

 letter, and subsequently in Land and Water. 



Echoing my own perplexities, he asks, 'Is there such 

 a snake as the Jarraracca ? When I got three more 



