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APPENDIX— ZOOLOGY. 



The amphibious monster, with the figure of a lizard, resembling the crocodile in Africa and Asia, 

 has, in the Brazil, tlie name of Jacare, or AUgator, and is met with in all the lakes and rivers of 

 tranquil current. 



Tlie plains of Brazil abound with a great number of Land Tortoises, which never enter the water; 

 their flesh is of fine flavour, and the liver is considered delicious. 



Man has less to fear from wild beasts in the Brazil than from reptiles, the species of which are 

 various, and some exceedingly numerous and generally venomous. 



The SucuRiUBA are affirmed to grow to the extraordinary length of forty feet, and are confined to 

 lakes and pools of dead water, firmly attaching its tail to a root, or the point of a stone at the bot- 

 tom of the water ; it seizes all living animals that approach the margin, and swallows the whole, as a 

 snake in Europe would a mouse or any small animal. Unmakes a hollow noise below the water, on 

 hearing any sound from without: the otter is its greatest enemy. 



The SuRUCUcu, or Surroco, seldom exceeds fifteen feet in length, is of proportionable width, and 

 usually met with in cool and shady places. Its tail is armed with two spears, and its bite is cured 

 with difiiculty. Its skin is marked with great symmetry, and is of an ash colour, with brownisii spots, and 

 covered with scales. 



In the beginning of 1819, a gentleman accompanied by six other persons arrived one evening upon 

 the margins of a lake, near the river Pardo, in the province of St. Paulo, where they dismounted to take 

 some repose. They perceived at a short distance what they supposed to be the trunk of a tree, which 

 shortly afterwards began to move; the contents of a gun was immediately discharged at it, and they 

 then despatched it with their knives. It was a Serpent of the surucucu species, and the gentleman 

 above mentioned assured me that it measured twenty-one feet in length, and four in girth. He had a 

 variety of articles besides several pairs of boots made from its skin, in the city of St. Paulo, one pair of 

 which I brought with me to Englautl. The torpid state which this serpent at first exhibited, arose 

 from its having recently gorged a young bull. 



The JiBOiA, which is scarcely distinguishable from the preceding serpent in size or colour, has no 

 spears to its tail, nor does it bite. When it seizes any living creature it is always for the purpose of 

 eating it. It never attacks its prey without first winding its tail round the trunk of a tree, in order 

 that its prisoner may not drag it away, and, after having fatigued it by its first attack, it then draws 

 itself so closely round the animal that it breaks its bones and kills it. 



The Cobra, of Cascavel, or Rattle Snake, is so called in consequence of its tail terminating with 

 some similitude to the husks of a species of dried pulse. It has scarcely the thickness of a man's leg, 

 with proportionable length. It never biles without beating three times with its cascavel, or rattle, upon 

 the ground, and its bite is almost always fatal. It is said that the number of the divisions of the tail 

 is equal to the age in years of this snake. The snake caninana is very long, of a slender form, black 

 and spotted with yellow. The jararaca is a species the most numerous, and its bite is fatal. That 

 denominated the caudu-hranca (white tail) is not more than a span in length, and there is yet no known 

 antidote against its venom. The living creature that has the misfortune to be stung by it immediately 

 becomes convulsed, sweats blood, and expires in a short time. The jararacucu \% oi a deep green 

 colour, of considerable length, and slender. Its bite is generally mortal. 



The Cobra de Coral (Coral Serpent) is small, of slender form, venomous, and beautified with 

 rings of various colours. 



DuAS Cabecas, (Two Heads,) so called because all its length is of the same thickness. It is also 

 venomous. It is said that the best antidote for its bite is to eat the liver of the said snake. 



