18 INTRODUCTION. 



and are consequently our only really amphibious animals. However inapplicable 

 the term amphibia may be to these animals, many writers have followed the 

 example of the great Swedish naturalist. Brisson* was the first who arranged 

 them under the name Reptiles;t Avhich term w ill be adopted in this work as more 

 indicative of their habits than the word amphibia. 



The science which treats of the form, organization, habits, and history of 

 Reptiles, is named Herpetology;:}: and has been more neglected than all other 

 branches of Zoology; for the study of Reptiles offers difficulties more numerous 

 and insurmountable than those presented by any other class of vertebratcd 

 animals. Inhabiting, for the most part, deep and extensive swamps, infected 

 with malaria, and abounding with diseases during the summer months, when 

 Reptiles are most numerous, time is wanting to observe their modes of life with 

 any prospect of success. Regarded, moreover, by most persons as objects of 

 detestation, represented as venomous, and possessed of the most noxious pro- 

 perties, few have been hardy enough to study their character and habits. 



Though wanting the gracefulness of form of some Mammalia, — though without 

 the beauty of plumage of some Birds, or the intelligence of others, — though they 

 lack the brilliancy of colour and wonderful instinct of the insect tribe, — still the 

 Reptiles offer many striking points of interest to the student of nature. To one 

 who would trace the chain of organized bodies, their connexion, their relation 

 with each other, and with the great whole, the study of Herpetology is highly 

 interesting and important. The Reptiles occupy a prominent place in the scale 

 of creation. Neither the highest, nor yet the lowest of vertebrated animals, they 

 fill a space between the Birds and Fishes, and without them a vast link in the 

 chain of animated beings would be wanting. Elevated above the Fish by the 



* Regne Animal, divise, &c. Paris, 1756. 



f Dumeril observes the term had been previously used by Lyonnet. Hist. Nat. des Rept., 

 torn. i. p. 2. 



J From hriTiv, a reptile, xijoc, a discourse. 



