‘Here’s the gentleman who brought it from Brazil, and he ought to know,’ returned the keeper in justifiable argument as he motioned with his hand towards a stranger by his side. The name of Dr. Arthur Stradling, a Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society, was already known to me. Though personally unacquainted, he had, indeed, through the columns of _Land and Water_, replied to some communications of my own. This informal introduction, therefore, led easily to the exchange of a few words about this contradictory ‘Jararaca,’ the name by which—as he assured me—the snake was known in Brazil. He had not, he said, examined the mouth of this snake during the voyage home, knowing its deadly character; and had simply accepted it as the ‘Jarraracca,’ according to its Brazilian vernacular. I ventured to point out the non-viperine aspect of the so-called ‘deadly’ reptile before us, and suggested that if it were indeed venomous it could only be an elaps, also that there were probably several that were known by this name. This led to a correspondence, both by letter and through the columns of _Land and Water_ (Oct. 1880), on the subject of vernacular names; but as these belong more especially to the ensuing chapter, I need only say here that Dr. Stradling returned to Brazil determined to investigate this confusion of names, and I thus gained a valuable ally in my endeavours to identify some of the perplexing vernaculars of Brazil with the scientific descriptions. On a subsequent voyage, Dr. Stradling obtained three more of these so-called Jararacas, and described them by letter, and subsequently in _Land and Water_.