4 INTRODUCTION. 



confined to the scientific alone. Nevertheless the Zoologist 

 has survived half a century, and under able editorship has 

 taken its stand as a popular as well as scientific journal. 

 Formerly you might have hunted the pages of such 

 magazines year after year without finding mention of an 

 ' odious snake ; ' but within the last decade, not only this 

 but other periodicals have frequently opened their pages 

 to ophiology, and a considerable removal of prejudice is 

 noticeable. 



Mr. Newman felt encouraged by the success attending the 

 publication of White's Selborne, that being one of the first 

 works to induce a practical study of nature. Yet, until the 

 appearance of Bell's British Reptiles in 1849, o^^ present 

 subject occupied but very stinted space in literature. 

 Indeed, we must admit that as a nation we English have 

 followed, not taken, the lead as naturalists. So long ago 

 as 1709, Lawson in his History of Carolina lamented 

 the * misfortune that most of our Travellers who go to this 

 vast Continent are of the meaner Sort, and generally of 

 very slender Education ; hired laborers and merchants to 

 trade among the Indians in remote parts.' . . . ' The French 

 outstrip us in nice Observations,' he said. 'First by their 

 numerous Clergy ; their Missionaries being obedient to their 

 Superiors.' Secondly by gentlemen accompanying these 

 religious missions, sent out to explore and make discoveries 

 and to keep strict journals, which duly were handed over to 

 science. And what Lawson remarked of the American 

 colonies was extended to wherever the French, Portuguese, 

 and Italians established religious communities. We find 

 our bookshelves ever enriched by foreign naturalists. 



