died, and ‘the wound was as if two four-inch nails had been driven into the flesh. So long are the fangs, and so deep the wounds, that there is no hope of being cured.’ P. H. Gosse quotes Sulivan regarding the enormous fangs, both of these latter writers judiciously omitting the ‘rainbow’ colouring. Most snakes, even the dingiest, occasionally display an iridescence which is certainly beautiful; and Waterton may have seen his Counicouchi when the sun lighted up the recently-renewed epidermis and showed him off in unusual brilliance; only, unfortunately, the copyists have imagined the greens and crimsons and blues of the rainbow, and rendered it a tedious business to poor patient plodders to arrive at the truth. In the _Encyclopædia Metropolitana_, 1845, we find another clue to identification. ‘_Trigonocephalus mutus_, a native of the Brazils and Guiana, and from six to seven feet long, is known to the Brazilians as _Surukuku_, and is probably the _Boschmeester_ of the Dutch and the _Cœnicoussi_ of the native inhabitants.’ Many writers of travels give the vernacular names only, while the more scientific who do give generic and specific names, may each give a different one and perhaps omit the vernaculars; and in none of the authorities does one discover the name ‘Bushmaster’ at all; while as to colour and the true size we can be sure of nothing. Presenting these complications to Dr. Stradling, whose kindly proffered co-operation I had gladly accepted, he wrote: ‘The vulgar names are often _local_ in a limited area, so that the same snake may be known by half-a-dozen different synonyms in as many different provinces—not only that, but these names are often applied to other snakes; and thus, while some species are blended together, many imaginary ones are created.’ This in part explains the varieties of spelling seen above; the two names _couanacouchi_ and _curucoocu_ being applied to one snake by different tribes of the native races extending over a rather wide area.