About and Above the Great Falls. hi 



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with those found upon another rare Boa to be obtained in 

 the colony, in which the ground colour, however, is of a 

 brilliant red. A specimen of this latter had been shot, in 

 the early part of the year, while coiled in a tree along the 

 Mahaicony, but it had sunk in the creek ere it could be 

 grasped ; and Mr. T. C. DUGGIN of New Amsterdam 

 had previously presented a specimen to the Museum 

 from the Upper Berbice river. 



Waterton had noted long ago that snakes were plenti- 

 ful along the Demerara river, and though he refers only 

 to the distrift between the coast and Seba, yet it seems 

 equally, if not more, applicable now to the distri6l above ; 

 for while we encountered but one, and that a small and 

 harmless one, below Cumparu, we frequently came across 

 them, and often poisonous ones, along the higher reaches 

 of the river. 



At Eneyudah, one morning, just at daybreak, a large 

 bushmaster (Lachesis 7nutus) was dete6led lying across 

 the path down the hill to the waterside, but before it 

 could be killed, it had crept into a thick and close 

 bushy cover, in which it proved hopeless to find it. On 

 another occcasion while we were engaged in looking for 

 a bird which had been shot by the water-side, at 

 the foot of this bushy cover, a medium-sized labarria 

 (Tri^onocephalus atrox) was encountered and killed, 

 and its skin utilised for the coUeftion, Just above 

 Wakakobi, two red, but harmless, colubrine snakes, 

 about six or seven feet in length, were discovered and 

 shot — one while coiled upon a branch, and the other 

 apparently struggling with some ground bird which was 

 making a fight for its life ; while a little further on, 

 a common black-tail (Spiloies variabilis) was shot 



