CRESTED SNAKE. 
375 
In a subsequent communication my friend fur- 
nishes me with more tangible information respecting 
this mysterious reptile. — Feb. 5th, 1846. I have 
conversed with Dr. Palmer, who, I remembered, had 
informed me, he had seen one of the Crested Snakes 
about which your curiosity has been particularly ex- 
cited. He tells me that in the neighbourhood of a 
plantation called Drummond Castle, in St David’s 
parish, without being more than rare, he has known 
specimens to have been found. He was present on 
a medical visit there some years ago, when the plant- 
ation people brought to the house one that they had 
just killed. Besides its remarkable crest, he says, he 
was particularly struck with its shape. It is the 
thickest Snake of its size he had seen. Although 
its length did not exceed four feet, it had the bulk of 
a Yellow Snake {ChilahotJirus inornatus) of seven feet. 
It had a sort of galeated head, with a crest like that 
of the guinea-fowl. Its colour was that of dull ashy 
ochre, having large well-defined spots along the back. 
He states that the negroes, in speaking of its habits, 
represented it as making a noise, not unlike the 
crowing of a cock, and as being addicted to preying 
on poultry. 
Drummond Castle is about eight miles from 
Kingston, in the immediate vicinity of some interest- 
ing waterfall scenery ; remarkable as the hiding- 
place of the freebooter. Three-fingered Jack, so 
familiarly known as a melo-dramatic hero. The 
scenery of The Falls, as this cascade district is called, 
is very romantic. The imagination of no painter of 
theatrical spectacles can surpass the wild wonders of 
