POISON SERPENTS. 387 



mangrove-caseabel, or dormilon; it bears the greatest resemblance 

 to the true cascabel, but, on all accounts, is not poisonous ; it 

 is very common all along the lower Caroni, and may often be 

 seen sluggishly extended on some branch that stretches over the 

 river. A small serpent, from twelve to sixteen inches in length, 

 is met with occasionally in courtyards, and among rubbish, also 

 in pasture-grounds ; it is called the ground-snake, and is probably 

 a coeeilia ; another smaller one, provided with a sting at the end 

 of the tail, may possibly be the Stenostoma albifrons of Dumeril. 

 The Cuaima is reported as being a deadly viper ; I have never 

 seen it, and only mention it on hearsay. 



Besides the toad here mentioned, there are several other 

 species, differing not only in size, but in general configuration. 

 Of real frogs I know but one, the paradoxal or fish-frog, so 

 remarkable for the large size of the tadpole, which is several 

 inches long, and has some resemblance to the cascaradura ; its 

 body — which is smooth and not scaly — exhibiting oblique bands 

 exactly like those of that fish. It still retains the tail some time 

 after the four limbs have grown, which gives it the grotesque 

 appearance of a fish provided with a toad's feet ; hence the erro- 

 neous impression among the vulgar, that the cascaradura is ulti- 

 j mately metamorphosed into a toad. There exist in the colony 

 many tree-frogs, or hylse-forms ; besides the one already men- 

 | tioned, I know a very small one, of a brown colour above and 

 i grey beneath ; another, of nearly the same colour, but much 

 larger, and found in cacao plantations, generally sticking on the 

 | under surface of some leaf (Hyla xerophylla ?) ; a third, of a 

 I milky colour {Hyla lactea ?) . 



The pipa is a large batrachian, very remarkable on account of 

 I its singular form, but more, and chiefly so, from its mode of 

 generation. The female carries on its back the eggs or semina 

 which the male has placed there ; a sort of inflammation is the 

 consequence of such application, and each egg becomes as im- 

 | prisoned in a cell, which gradually increases in size, so as to 

 accommodate the growth of the semen. When hatched, the 

 young escape from the cells, the back of the mother remaining 

 for some time as if honey-combed. 



A pretty little lizard, about four inches long, which we have 

 not been able to determine, is very common in town, along fence- 

 walls, in the crevices of which it dwells. It is easily distin- 



