THE START 17 



been possible to have held an African ring-necked cobra in 

 such fashion, because the ring-neck would have ejected its 

 venom through the fangs into the eyes of the onlookers. 

 There was no danger in this case, and the doctor inserted 

 a shallow glass saucer into the mouth of the snake behind 

 the fangs, permitted it to eject its poison, and then himself 

 squeezed out the remaining poison from the poison-bags 

 through the fangs. From the big lachecis came a large 

 quantity of yellow venom, a liquid which speedily crystal- 

 lized into a number of minute crystals. The rattlesnake 

 yielded a much less quantity of white venom, which the 

 doctor assured us was far more active than the yellow 

 lachecis venom. Then each snake was returned to its box 

 unharmed. 



After this the doctor took out of a box and presented 

 to me a fine, handsome, nearly black snake, an individual 

 of the species called the mussurama. This is in my eyes 

 perhaps the most interesting serpent in the world. It is 

 a big snake, four or five feet long, sometimes even longer, 

 nearly black, lighter below, with a friendly, placid temper. 

 It lives exclusively on other snakes, and is completely im- 

 mune to the poison of the lachecis and rattlesnake groups, 

 which contain all the really dangerous snakes of America. 

 Doctor Brazil told me that he had conducted many experi- 

 ments with this interesting snake. It is not very common, 

 and prefers wet places in which to live. It lays eggs, and 

 the female remains coiled above the eggs, the object being 

 apparently not to warm them, but to prevent too great 

 evaporation. It will not eat when moulting, nor in cold 

 weather. Otherwise it will eat a small snake every five or 

 six days, or a big one every fortnight. 



