was wandering one day amongst the green bushes of Guajara, a tree
which yields a grape-like berry (Chrysobalanus Icaco) and grows
along all these sandy shores, when I was startled by what
appeared to be the flexuous stem of a creeping plant endowed with
life and threading its way amongst the leaves and branches. This
animated liana turned out to be a pale-green snake, the Dryophis
fulgida. Its whole body is of the same green hue, and it is thus
rendered undistinguishable amidst the foliage of the Guajara
bushes, where it prowls in search of its prey-- treefrogs and
lizards. The forepart of its head is prolonged into a slender
pointed beak, and the total length of the reptile was six feet.
There was another kind found amongst bushes on the borders of the
forest closely allied to this, but much more slender, viz., the
Dryophis acuminata. This grows to a length of four feet eight
inches, the tail alone being twenty-two inches; but the diameter
of the thickest part of the body is little more than a quarter of
an inch. It is of light-brown colour, with iridescent shades
variegated with obscurer markings, and looks like a piece of
whipcord. One individual which I caught of this species had a
protuberance near the middle of the body. Upon opening it, I
found a half-digested lizard which was much more bulky than the
snake itself.

Another kind of serpent found here, a species of Helicops, was
amphibiousin its habits. I saw several of this in wet weather on
the beach, which, on being approached, always made straightway
for the water, where they swamwith much grace and dexterity.
Florinda one day caught a Helicops while angling for fish, it
having swallowed the fishhook with the bait. She and others told
me these water-snakes lived on small fishes, but I did not meet