134 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



" brown or even black. These chromatophores are distributed 

 "in the skin with a certain regularity; in this particular, rep- 

 " tiles, fishes and amphibians show hardly any or no difference. 

 " The true chromatophores lie in different biyers in the catis ; 

 " close to the epidermis, light coloured yellow cells occur, be- 

 " neath them the red or brown, and, in the deepest layer the 

 " black. In some spots the pigment cells of one kind or the 

 "other may be wholly wanting ; sometimes the black ones form 

 " a close mass in one spot, while in others the red or yellow pre- 

 " dominate, but very few spots are devoid of pigment altogether. 

 " It is on this distribution and stratification of the chromato- 

 " phores and their alternate expansion and contraction that the 

 " pattern (so to speak) depends, which the frog's skin displays at 

 "any given moment. If all the chromatophores are relaxed, 

 "brown or black will predominate and in spots where light- 

 " coloured chromatophores lie in patches their hue will be dulled j 

 •' if they contract, while the light ones are still extended, the e 

 "litter will be more conspicious." So you see these changes 

 of colour can be satisfactorily explained and there is nothing 

 sapernatural about them. The Chameleons sit quietly on the 

 t -ees or move about slowly and the nature of their food, viz: 

 butterflies make them particularly useful about gardens. Yet 

 the ladies g > into ecstasies over the lovely b ifcl vdy whose larvae 

 devour the flowers while they shriek with h >rror at the hideous 

 lizard which is of infinite service to them in killing the beautiful 

 enemies of their gardens. We now come to the snakes, " the 

 tribe accurst" according to the Bible. How persecuted and 

 yet how useful these poor reptiles are. There are some that are 

 poisonous but I can assure you that it is but rarely one meets 

 a venomous snake. Only harmless useful serpents, except per- 

 haps the coral snake,* are met about town and the neighbourhood. 

 Snakes have alwa} T s played a great part in the fables and beliefs 

 of nations. Not only the fables of the Jews and Christians, 

 but those of other nations contain something about snakes ; 

 by some they are dispised, by others feared, others love them and 

 others again worship them, but by few are they understood. Of 

 the numerous snakes in Trinidad which are useful I will only 

 mention a few. The Cascabel Dormillonf or Tree Boa, is one of the 

 mo it useful in that he kills rats and squirrels on cocoa estates. Un- 

 fortunately he is alsokilledin returnfor hisgood services, wherever 

 seen. I think Mr. O'Keilly's description of this snake would 

 perhaps better interest you than any words of mine. He says : 

 ' The Cascabel Dormillon merits our attention for many reasons. 

 " He is the victim of the worst calumny. His very name is a lie. 

 " Cascabel Dormillon, means sleeping rattlesnake. Now he is 



* Elaps riisci Jan. and E. lemniscatus, Lnn. 

 f Corallus cookii. Grav. 



