104 WANDERINGS IN 



SECOND a grasshopper beyond all doubt, and nothing 



JOURNEY. r . . 



- more remained to be done but to wait in patience 

 till it had settled, in order that you might run 

 no risk of breaking its legs in attempting to lay 

 hold of it while it was fluttering it still kept 

 fluttering; and having quietly approached it, 

 intending to make sure of it behold, the head of 

 a large rattlesnake appeared in the grass close by : 

 an instantaneous spring backwards prevented fatal 

 consequences. What had been taken for a grass- 

 hopper was, in fact, the elevated rattle of the 

 snake in the act of announcing that he was quite 

 prepared, though unwilling, to make a sure and 

 deadly spring. He shortly after passed slowly 

 from under the orange-tree to the neighbouring 

 wood on the side of a hill : as he moved over a 

 place bare of grass and weeds, he appeared to be 

 about eight feet long ; it was he who had engaged 

 the attention of the birds, and made them heedless 

 of danger from another quarter : they flew away 

 on his retiring ; one alone left his little life in the 

 air, destined to become a specimen, mute and 

 motionless, for the inspection of the curious in a 

 far distant clime. 

 Rainy It was now the rainy season; the birds were 



Seasons. . _ 



moulting ; fifty-eight specimens of the handsomest 

 of them in the neighbourhood of Pernambuco had 

 been collected ; and it was time to proceed else- 

 where. The conveyance to the interior was by 

 horses; and this mode, together with the heavy 



