150 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



anieiva lizards. =:::= My companion, to whom the woods are as an 

 open book, seemed to note everything, and pointed to the marks, 

 made only an hour or so before, by the peccaries when they were 

 lazily rubbing their sides against the trees. In trying to obtain 

 further traces of the peccaries we were obliged to wade through 

 a large patch of long, broad-bladed plants which we found to our 

 cost were well described by the soubriquet of " razor grass, "f 

 Near here, I was told, a coolie had a singular adventure with a 

 mapepire. The East Indian with some companions was out 

 at night on an armadillo hunting expedition and having a lighted 

 lantern in his hand, was standing talking to a companion when 

 he became suddenly conscious of the unjfleasant fact that the 

 head and forepart of the body of an enormous mapepire J was 

 slowly rising out of the under-growth, the glittering eyes and 

 rapidly vibrating tongue was stealthily approaching the light and 

 paralyzed the Coolie with fear. The reptile seemed to be trying to 

 discover what gigantic fire-fly had entered his domain. The Coolies 

 were so terrified at the sight of the blunt, rough scaled head, the 

 flickering tongue and crotaline pits that they could not act, but a 

 Creole, who had accompanied them, was more ready witted, and 

 raising his trusty cutlass he delivered a swishing blow which cut 

 off the inquisitive one's head. Next morning when they returned 

 to the place they found the severed head firmly grasping in its 

 enormously fanged jaws the stem of a young tree. The razor 

 grass crossed we entered the terital§; underneath the large 

 leaves a fine Bombyx silk moth was flitting which Mr. Urich care- 

 fully secured. Here animal life was more in evidence, for we 

 caught a glimpse of a yellow crested green parrot|| flying noisily 

 away, and heard the clang of the toucansll and cooing of the doves 

 or ramiers. ° ° A tree close at hand bore long scratches upon its 

 bark which were unhesitatingly declared to be those of a 

 tiger catff but pussy herself was not at home. Soon afterwards 

 we found ourselves among some Avild cacao trees and then we 

 ascended an incline which gradually became steeper, and 

 at length emerged upon a beautiful plateau extending 

 over an area of several acres. Such a spot our friends thought an 

 admirable one for a cocoa estate, it being a situation not liable 

 to flooding in the wet season, a great desideratum, but one likely 

 to be overlooked by the inexperienced, who are liable to select 



*A meiva surinamensis. 



■fScleria, sp. 



\Lachesis muta, Linn. 



§The terite grows in large patches which are locally called " terital." 



\\Amazona amazonica, L. 



*i}kamphastos vitelliniis, Licht. 



**Columba spcciosa, Gm. 



ft Probably Felts pardalis. 



