THE "NAKED VIPER"

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 243, 14 October 1935, Page 5

THE "NAKED VIPER"

A COLLECTOR'S BAG. COSTA RICAN SNAKES. QUEST TOR RARE REPTILES Tho writer of this dispatch, a yonns Now York scientist, went to Costa Rica in quest of rare and dangerous reptiles for American zoos. (By ARTHUR M. GREENHALL.) SAN JOSE (Costa Rica), August 17. My third day in Costa Rica found me with my first specimen of snake. My collecting expedition to this country, for reptile and amphibian specimens to be exhibited in various zoological parks in the United States, started off with a bang.

I walked into the Gran Hotel Europe with a very innocent looking beer bottls under my arm. A few people were sitting around in the foyer and, no doubt, regarded me as a queer Americano who wanted to drink a bottle of beer in the privacy oi his room. Hastening to my room 1 dumped out into 'lie balhtub the contents of the brown bottle. A small snake, about a foot long and with an evil looking head, survived its new surroundings. Dr. Carlos Viquez, director of the biological chemical laboratory of the San Juan dc Dios Hospital, had given it to me. "Si, senor, 'Toboda Chinga' is a very poisonous snake," Dr. iquez told me. "It is a relative of our Fer De Lance, probably the most dangerous snake in the American tropics. It is vciy rare. All our vipers are called 'tobobas,' and 'chinga' means naked, but I cannot tell you why they call it the naked viper. What do you call its scientific name?" "Bothrops Landsbergii," I said. "I will give it to you," Dr. Viquez continued. "I want to be the one to give you your first specimen of Costa Rican snake. It will bring you good luck. I want also to give you a copy of my latest book. It will tell you about

the 'tobobas' and all the poisonous animals found in our little country."

Dr. Viquez and Dr. Clodomiro Picado, both of San Juan de Diofe Hospital, are the two men in Costa Rica most interested in venomous snakes. I am very much indebted to both for the assistance they have given me.

At the hospital Dr. Picado outlined for me the best plan for getting specimens for zoological park purposes. He would write to his associates in various parts of the country to bring in anything they could. And I would make numerous excursions to various parts of Costa Rica to see what the country was like and to pick up whatever animals I could. Dr. Picado also suggested that I house all my specimens at the hospital and make my working headquarters at his laboratory.

I npticed a twinkle in DP. Picado's eye when the conversation suddenly turned to vampire bats. Apparently there is no escape from the "bloody bats." Everyone stems to be interested in them. "La Tribuna," the local newspaper, has

devoted a great deal of space to the investigations made by Dr. Raymond L. Ditmars, of the Bronx Zoo, New York, and myself of the vampire bats in Panama and Trinidad. "Of course you want to take back specimens of our ' murcielagos' to the State," Dr. Picado said. "We shall be able to find them here and at quite high altitudes. It may be that we shall find s-ome interesting things about the Costa Eican vampire. We shall see." There was a knock at the door and a small street urchin was ushered in. "Are you the 'doctor' from the United States?" be asked. "Si, muchacho," I replied. "What can I do for you?" "I have a present for you," tho youngster answered. With that he dropped a small object into my hand and fled. It was the skull of a good-sized bat, but not that of the blood-drinking vampire. "You sec," said Dr. Picado, "they know about you,already!"