42 



in groups which will show the affinities of the families which 

 compose them. But the present arrangement is less dis- 

 onant from the order of development shown by the families 

 when compared with the primitive lacertilian type, and it 

 renders diagnosis of an unknown snake easier than when 

 the families are arranged in entirely empirical order. I 

 imagine that the process by which development has taken 

 place must have been somewhat on the system shown 

 below, and I have no doubt that a consideration of general 

 ophiology and not that of India alone, would fill up many 

 hiatus at present evident. 



