32 TiMRHRI. 
asleep, and even on disturbance merely raised the head, 
darting out the tongue, as all these pit-vipers do, unless 
the disturbance be of a more or less violent kind. From 
the size to which it attains, the bushmaster is, however, 
justly entitled to the dreadful reputation which it bears. 
Under Occasional Notes in a former number of this 
Journal, an incident is narrated on the authority of Mr. 
Barnard, the well-known American mining expert in 
the Colony, of one of these snakes being observed to 
give out from its mouth, after being severely wounded, a 
number of small young specimens. Mr. BARNARD asseve- 
rates that there was not, nor could there have been, any 
possible mistake of the anus for the mouth, the snake 
being dire6lly observed in the water when it was struck. 
Since then another incident of the same kind has been 
observed by him, also in the Upper Mazaruni districts, 
and there being no mistake, these incidents would seem 
to shew that young vipers do at times take refuge in 
the mouth of their parent, however unlikely ic may 
appear. 
The Labarria (Lachesis atrox)y includes not only the 
commonly known form which passes under this name in 
the Colony, but also the Fer-de-lance and the Jararaca, 
which are evidently but varieties of one and the same 
widely distributed species. 
Like the bushmaster, they possess a terminal horny 
spine, and a black streak from the eye to the angle of the 
mouth; but the under side of the tail bears no small 
scales replacing the sub-caudal shields, and the supra- 
ocular shield is large. The head, too, is much more 
sharply pointed with distin6l raised edges, the part 
anterior to the eye forming almost a neat triangle ; and 
