A YOUNG NATURALIST. 443 



answered the boy, from whose hand a drop of blood was 

 trickling. 



"That is because their proboscis is armed with lancets 

 which are sharp enough to pierce the hides of bulls and 

 horses." 



During this voyage, Lucien amused himself -by teaching 

 the two parrots to repeat the names of his brother and sis- 

 ter; but the birds, with one foot held up and their heads 

 bent down, although they paid great attention to the words 

 repeated by the boy, as yet did not profit much by the 

 lesson. 



In the course of our voyage we were constantly losing 

 trace of the current in some vast lagoon, and had often a 

 long search till we found it. In one of these searches, I 

 caught sight of such a picturesque bay that I proposed a 

 halt. In front of us opened a tolerably deep glade, border- 

 ed by tall palm-trees. L'Encuerado pushed the raft to land 

 over the aquatic plants, and I jumped ashore to moor our 

 craft. 



A fallen tree tempted us into the forest, and on the 

 damp ground Lucien caught sight of a magnificent rattle- 

 snake, seemingly torpid. Sumichrast discharged his gun 

 at the reptile, which reared itself up, and then fell down 

 dead. A noise immediately resounded in several direc- 

 tions, and two or three snakes of the same family appear- 

 ed, one of them followed by three young ones. The snake 

 killed by my friend measured more than a yard in length. 

 Its skin was speckled with black, brown, and gray spots, 

 and its flat, triangular head had a very repulsive look. Lu- 

 cien, with a blow from his machete, cut off the rattles 

 which give to the reptile its name. These horny append- 

 ages, of which there were seven, were given to l'Encuerado, 

 who, like all his fellow-countrymen, believed them to be 

 endued with miraculous virtues — among others, that of 



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