160 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



incident when we were out shooting together in the 

 locality. 



There is a general impression among Europeans that 

 tropical forests teem with venomous snakes. Although 

 I have spent the greater part of the last ten years in the 

 forests of Venezuela and Colombia, I am ashamed to 

 confess that I am not the hero of any thrilling snake 

 adventure. As a matter of fact I never give snakes a 

 thought, and I will crawl through brushwood on hands 

 and knees in search of any bird I may have killed with 

 as little concern as if I were in my own garden. But I 

 respect wasps, hornets, and ants. I do not say that I 

 have not met with and killed venomous snakes, but the 

 danger of being bitten by them may be left out of 

 account when we consider how rarely we hear of 

 accidents from snake-bites in the region of the woods. 

 In dry, arid, stony country covered with cacti and thorny 

 bushes venomous snakes appear to be ever so much 

 more plentiful than in the humid forests. Such a tract 

 of country, for instance, as that on which the town of 

 Cumana is situated, a place where it scarcely ever rains, 

 appears admirably suited to certain forms of reptile life, 

 including snakes. A gentleman who possesses a country 

 seat a couple of miles distant from the town told me that 

 some of his men, while clearing a piece of ground some 

 two acres in extent, killed no fewer than seventeen rattle- 

 snakes. All along the northern coast of Venezuela the 

 rattlesnake is exceedingly common in the dry arid 

 districts, but it is not met with in the virgin forest. 



Of the mammalia of La Prision the most interesting 

 are, of course, our blood-relations the monkeys.' 



' Do not the results of Dr. Nutall's fascinating researches entitle 

 monkeya to claim a blood -relationship with us ? ' The New Biological Test 



