1 6 INTR OB UCTION. 



tures was discarded for a more ambitious work ; but still 

 was confronted by disaffected publishers, whom even the 

 Chelsea snakes failed to convince of public interest. 



Friends protested — and still demand — even while I write 

 — * How can you give your mind to such odious, loath- 

 some, slimy creatures?' and I boldly reply, 'In the hope 

 of inducing you to believe that they are not odious and 

 loathsome, and especially not "slimy," but in the majority 

 graceful, useful, beautiful, wonderful I' And I invite them 

 to accompany me to the Zoological Gardens, and endeavour 

 there to contemplate a reptile as they look at the other 

 denizens of the Gardens, simply as a member of the wide 

 family of the brute creation, appointed by the Great All-wise 

 to live and feed and enjoy existence as much as the rest, and 

 that have to accomplish the purpose for which they were 

 created equally with the feathered families which we admire 

 and — devour ! 



And as whatever may be original or novel in this book 

 has been obtained at the Zoological Gardens, I now invite 

 my readers to accompany me in imagination to the 

 Ophidarium, where we may learn how that little ring snake 

 was able to swallow his prodigious mouthful without sepa- 

 rating it limb from limb, as a carnivorous mammal would 

 divide the lamb it has killed. 



' But ' — you exclaim in horror — ' we do not wish to con- 

 template so painful, so repulsive a spectacle ! How could 

 you, how can you, stand coolly there and see that poor 

 frogf tortured and swallowed ahve?' 



Dear, tender-hearted reader, I did not, I coidd not, un- 

 moved, contemplate this sight at first ; nor for a very 



