308 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



pearance closely resembled the green boa, but its attitude 

 was defiant and even aggressive; examination showed that 

 it possessed long fangs. One day several of the men came 

 running into our room and shouted " Pisisi." We followed 

 them to the clearing, and found that they had discovered a 

 huge bushmaster coiled under a log. They tried to drive 

 the reptile out with long poles, but it refused to move; 

 finally the priest pulled the enormous creature bodily from 

 its hiding-place with the aid of a hooked stick ; it was very 

 sluggish and made no attempt to strike. After shooting 

 it we found that it measured nearly seven feet in length, 

 with a diameter of five inches. The fangs, over an inch 

 long, emitted about a tablespoonful of yellowish poison. 



The bushmaster, called surucucu in Brazil, is truly a ter- 

 rible creature. It grows to a length of ten feet or more, 

 and attains a great thickness. A snake of that size has fangs 

 an inch and a half long and injects nearly a tablespoonful 

 of poison at a single thrust. The ground-color is reddish 

 yellow crossed by black bands, sometimes forming a series 

 of X's along the back. It does not take kindly to captivity 

 and dies of starvation after a few months of confinement. 

 It is one of the few snakes which are supposed to incubate 

 their eggs. After selecting a hole in the ground or in a 

 stump the reptile lays a dozen or more eggs; then it coils 

 up on top of them and does not leave the vicinity until 

 they hatch ; at such times it is very irritable, and will strike 

 with deadly results any creature which disturbs it. The 

 poison acts rapidly, and I heard of a case where an Indian 

 died in less than half an hour after having been bitten. 



There were also small brown salamanders and lizards 

 with spiny backs that resembled horned toads. Perhaps 

 the rarest catch of all was a splendid example of the curious 

 cane-rat (Dactylomys), an animal seldom encountered on 

 account of its rarity and secretive habits. It resembles a 

 large rat, being twenty-five inches long, and of a dark-gray 

 color; the toes are divided into pairs in order to enable it 

 to easily climb slender stalks, and instead of claws it has 



