PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR. 



After having read or consulted most of the published 

 works on Ophiology, the Translator never met with 

 any satisfactory system of that branch of Natural His- 

 tory, until he perused the " Essay" of M. Schlegel. 

 In the English language certainly there exists nothing 

 of the kind ; and scarcely even any descriptions of in- 

 dividuals, worthy of consultation, except the admirable 

 " Indian Serpents" of Dr Patrick Russel, the obser- 

 vations of Dr John Davy, in his " Account of Ceylon," 

 and the remarks in Mr A. Smith's splendid " Zoology 

 of Southern Africa." 



A desire to add to the literature of his country the 

 researches of so accomplished and philosophical an 

 ophiologist as M. Schlegel, and a wish to afford a 

 safe guide to the British Student of Natural History 

 in this department, have produced the present volume. 



He would willingly have published a translation of 

 the complete work of M. Schlegel; but the low 

 state of Ophiology in this country deters any book- 

 seller from undertaking so large a work on Serpents, 



