HISTOKY OF OPniOLOGY. 123 



plates which illustrate them are executed with care, and 

 represent the objects with exactness. We regret not 

 to be able to give the same praise to those published by 

 Wagler from the specimens collected in the travels of M. 

 Spix. We find introduced into this book, under new 

 names, the most common species ; the same species is 

 sometimes figured under several different denominations, 

 and even disposed in different genera ; the species collected 

 in Spain are there described as natives of Brazil ; the num^ 

 ber of genera has been most unnecessarily augmented, and 

 new generic appellations are arbitrarily substituted for the 

 old. The author, in loading his descriptions with idle de- 

 tails, has rendered them diffuse : in a word, the defects 

 which abound are not at all compatible with the ostenta- 

 tion displayed in this work, and in some similar publica- 

 tions. 



The design of the works of M. Fitzinger professing to 

 be an arrangement of Reptiles according to their natural 

 afliinities, this herpetologist has reunited the Ophidians to 

 the Saurians, which are divided into many families ; the 

 denominations which he has used to designate the numer- 

 ous generic groups he has created, are in a great measure 

 borrowed from the barbarous momenclature of Seba ; an 

 enumeration of the Ophidians that form a part of the Mu- 

 seum of Vienna is annexed to his little work, as an illus- 

 tration of his views. Mine differing in many respects from 

 his, I shall here state some facts scattered throughout his 

 book, to serve as points of comparison. 



The genus Duberria of M. Fitzinger comprehends 

 species which make part of my genera Calamaria, Coluber, 

 Xenodon, Coronella, Naja, and Lycodon. We see ar- 

 ranged among his Colubers, species of Coronella, Psam- 

 mophis, Lycodon, Xenodon, Herpetodryas, Dipsas, Tro- 

 pidonotus, and true Colubers ; in the family of the Colu- 

 broides are included the Acrochordus, Hydrophis, Ilerpe- 

 ton, Xenopeltis, and all the other harmless serpents, with 

 the exception of the Tortrix and the Boa ; but of the two 

 succeeding families each contains sea-serpents, which figure 

 beside the Viper, Flaps, or Naja, genera too widely sepa- 



