INTRODUCTION. 



TO the many friends who have repeatedly asked me, 

 ' What C02ild induce you to take up such a horrid 

 subject as snakes?' a few words of explanation must be 

 offered. Some words of apology are also due that I, a 

 learner myself, should aspire to instruct others. I cannot 

 do better, therefore, than tell the history of this book from 

 its birth, and in so doing cancel both obligations. The 

 little history will be a sort of OPHIDIANA^ or gossip about 

 snakes ; and in this I only follow the example of most 

 herpetologists, who, when writing exclusively on these 

 reptiles, preface their work with some outline of the history 

 of ophiology, and generally with an excuse for introducing 

 the unwelcome subject at all. There is still reason to lament 

 that traditional prejudice invests everything in the shape of 

 a serpent with repulsive qualities, and that these prejudices 

 are being only very slowly swept away by the besom of 

 science. 



Serpents are intimately associated with our religious 



A 



