188 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 



a wonder and mystery to the wisest man. In 

 one of my snake-books by a French naturahst in 

 the West Indies there is an account of a fer-de-lance 

 which he kept confined in order to study its habits. 

 He watched it hour after hour, day after day, 

 lying prone on the floor of its cage as if asleep or 

 stupefied, until he was sick and tired of seeing it 

 in that dull, dead-alive state, and in his disgust he 

 threw open the door to let it go free. He watched 

 it. Slowly the head turned, and slowly, slowly it 

 began to move towards the open door, and so 

 dragged itself out, then over the space of bare 

 ground towards the bushes and trees beyond. But 

 once well out in the open air its motions and 

 aspect began to change. The long, straightened- 

 out, dull-coloured, dragging body was smitten with 

 a sudden new life and became sinuous in form ; 

 its slow motion grew swift, and from a dragging 

 became a gliding motion ; the dangerous head 

 with its flickering tongue lifted itself high up, the 

 stony eyes shone, and all along the body the 

 scales sparkled like wind-crinkled water in the 

 sun : watching it, he was thrilled at the sight 

 and amazed at this wonderful change in its 

 appearance. 



And that is how I, too, would have liked to see 

 the fer-de-lance in its dreadful beauty and power ; 

 the cribo too, that gives it battle, and conquers 

 and devours it in spite of its poison fangs ; also 

 its noble relations, the rattlesnakes and pit-vipers, 

 led by the Surucurii, the serpent monarch of the 



