374 Notes on an alleged species of poisonous Lizard, §c. 



desirous of putting the matter to the test of experiment; 

 and offered a reward to any one who would bring me a living 

 Biscopra, or a poisonous lizard of any kind. Several 

 janwars were brought to me accordingly, including some 

 ferocious Cobras di Capello with undrawn fangs, but no 

 Biscopra was forthcoming. Indeed the word is not known 

 to Bengallees — but there is a medicine called Bis-kupra, or 

 Bish-khupra, used in Bengal by native practitioners, as a 

 remedy in pulmonary affections and intermittent fevers of 

 long standing. I reiterated my desire to have a lizard 

 whose bite was considered deadly, and the common 

 Goshamp was brought to me. At length a friend (belong- 

 ing to the civil service) managed to catch for me in an old 

 wall at Baraset a most active Lacerta, which the natives 

 assured him was capable by its bite of inflicting instantane- 

 ous death. " Now," thought I, " or never, am I to be 

 blessed with the sight of a real and genuine Biscopra !" 



Determined to lose no time in putting my formidable 

 friend's powers to the proof, I confined him within a trans- 

 parent glass vessel where he was quite at his ease. He was 

 an exceedingly lively little fellow, about five or six inches 

 long, and his skin presented the appearance of irregular 

 streaks of small beads of a dark grey and a lighter shade, 

 alternating, as well as I can describe from recollection — for 

 unfortunately the specimen itself, preserved in spirits, and a 

 very accurate painted representation of it, which I presented 

 to my friend Mr. J. T. Pearson, of Darjeeling, have both 

 been swallowed by the Ganges, in one of those fits of gulli- 

 bility which that sacred river occasionally exhibits. Suc- 

 ceeding in catching a ' ridiculus mus,' I determined to intro- 

 duce him to the Biscopra, which by the way resembled 

 very nearly the one forwarded to me from Meerut — save 

 that the latter was considerably larger, and his head more 

 pointed and snake-like. . I accordingly dropped mus into 

 the glass vessel, in which I could conveniently watch the 



