HAYTIAN SNAKE. 
381 
described to me as a frequenter of hen-roosts, into 
which it thrust its head, and deceived the young 
chickens by doing its best to crow, since it looked 
so much like their own chanticleer. The Spanish 
friend who first mentioned to me this anomalous 
snake, and begged me to note it among my remark- 
able things of the country, told me that he had seen 
it when visiting in that far east of Hayti, known as 
the ancient Caciquedom of Higuey. The mountains 
there rise ‘ in terraces from ten to fifteen leagues in 
length and breadth, rough and rocky, interspersed 
wdth glens,’ — remarkably fertile, and resembling our 
Red Hills, as much in their produce of Cassava-bread, 
as in their red soil. Las Casas, who supplies Wash- 
ington Irving with his account of the physical aspect 
of this Indian territory*, in mentioning the moun- 
tain ascents, and their graduated rise, from ‘ terrace 
to terrace,’ — ‘ steep and precipitous,’ • — faced by 
‘ rocks that resemble walls wrought with tools into 
rough diamond points,’ — is describing mountain 
scenery very familiar to you, — the honeycomb 
limestone whose cellular surface is so remarkably 
rugged with cavities and angular spiculse. I have 
been particular in making this reference to Higuey, 
because I did not visit that part of Saint Domingo, 
but was informed that the Serpent with mandibles 
like a bird, and with scarlet lobes or wattles, and 
voice that made what might possibly be a cluck like 
that of the clucking Lizard an imitation of the 
crowing of the cock, was commonly known there ; so 
that if Seba should mention Higuey, or indicate the 
east end of Hayti as the locality from which he re- 
* Life and Voyages of Columbus, book xvii. ch. iii. 
