WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 1G7 



was fluttering, as thougli it had got entangled in it When 

 you once fancy that the thing you are looking at is really 

 what you take it for, the more you look at it the more you 

 are convinced it is so. In the present case, this was a 

 grasshopper beyond all doubt, and nothing more remained 

 to be done but to wait in patience till it had settled, in 

 order that you migl)t run no risk of breaking its legs in 

 attempting to lay hold of it while it was fluttering — it still 

 ]<ept fluttering ; and having quietly approached it, intend- 

 ing to make sure of it — behold, the head of a large rattle- 

 snake appeared in the grass close by : an instantaneous 

 spring backwards prevented fatal consequences. What 

 had been taken for a grasshopper 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 re- 

 tiring ; 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. 



It was now the rainy season ; the birds were moulting ; 

 flfty-eight specimens of the handsomest of them in the 

 neighbourhood of Pernambuco had been collected ; and it 

 was time to proceed elsewhere. The conveyance to the 

 interior was by horses ; and this mode, together with the 

 heavy rains, would expose preserved specimens to almost 

 certain damage. The journey to IMaranham by land would 

 take at least forty days. The route was not wild enough 

 to engage the attention of an explorer, or civilized enough 

 to afford common comforts to a traveller. By sea there 



