HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



In the lake of Chaico there are three very numerous 

 fpecies of frogs, of three very diiferent lizes and colours, 

 and very common at the tables in the capital. Thofc 

 of Huaxteca are excellent, and will fometimes weigh a 

 Spanifli pound: but I never faw or heard in that country 

 the tree frogs, which are fo common in Italy and other 

 parts of Europe. 



The ferpents are of much greater variety than the rep* 

 tiles already mentioned, there being many of different 

 fizes and colours, fome poifonous and others innocent. 



The moft confiderable in point of fize feems to have 

 been one called Canauhcoatl by the Mexicans. It was 

 about three Parifian perches long, and of the thicknefs 

 of a middle fized man. One of the Tlikoas^ or black 

 ferpents, which Hernandez faw in the mountains of Te- 

 poztlan, was not quite fo large ; which, although it was 

 not equal in thicknefs, yet was ten Spanifli cubits, or 

 more than fixteen Parifian feet long. Such monflrous 

 ferpents are feldom to be found now-a-days, unlefs in 

 fome folitary wood, at a diftance from the capital. 



The mofl remarkable of the poifonous ferpents are the 

 Ahueya6ilfy the Cuicuilcoatl^ the Teixminani, the Cencoatl^ 

 and the TeotlacozauhquL 



The Teotlacozauhqui^ of which there are feveral fpc^ 

 cies, is the famous rattle-fnake. Its colour and fize are 

 various, but it is commonly three or four feet long. The 

 rattle may be confidered as an appendix to the vertebrae, 

 and confifts of rings of a horny fubftance, moveable, and 

 connefted with each other by means of articulations or 

 joints, every one being compofed of three fmall bones (/). 



The 



(/) Hernandez fays, that a new ring Is added every year, and that the num- 

 ,l)C3r of the rings correfpond with the years of the fnake's age: but we do not 



know 



