20 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



Doctor Brazil informed me that the mussurama, like 

 the king-snake, was not immime to the colubrine poison. 

 A mussurama in his possession, which had with im- 

 punity killed and eaten several rattlesnakes and repre- 

 sentatives of the lachecis genus, also killed and ate a 

 venomous coral-snake, but shortly afterward itself died 

 from the effects of the poison. It is one of the many 

 puzzles of nature that these American serpents which 

 kill poisonous serpents should only have grown immune 

 to the poison of the most dangerous American poisonous 

 serpents, the pit-vipers, and should not have become im- 

 mune to the poison of the coral-snakes which are com- 

 monly distributed throughout their range. Yet, judging 

 by the one instance mentioned by Doctor Brazil, they 

 attack and master these coral-snakes, although the con- 

 flict in the end results in their death. It would be inter- 

 esting to find out whether this attack was exceptional, 

 that is, whether the mussurama has or has not as a species 

 learned to avoid the coral-snake. If it was not excep- 

 tional, then not only is the instance highly curious in 

 itself, but it would also go far to explain the failure of 

 the mussurama to become plentiful. 



For the benefit of those who are not acquainted with 

 the subject, I may mention that the poison of a poison- 

 ous snake is not dangerous to its own species unless in- 

 jected in very large doses, about ten times what would 

 normally be injected by a bite; but that it is deadly to 

 all other snakes, poisonous or non-poisonous, save as re- 

 gards the very few species which themselves eat poison- 

 ous snakes. The Indian hamadryad, or giant cobra, is 

 exclusively a snake-eater. It evidently draws a sharp 



