INTR OD UCTION. 2 3 



others who were then led to expect its early appearance, I 

 may be allowed to offer an excuse for tardiness. Like the 

 creatures which fill its pages, I succumb to the chills of 

 winter, and depend on the suns of summer for renewed 

 vigour and activity. At one time impaired health, and the 

 enforced suspension of literary pursuits under the threatened 

 loss of the use of my right hand, were grievous interruptions. 



Filial duties and domestic bereavements caused another 

 two years' delay. Banished to the seaside, and the pen 

 prohibited during the winter of 1874-75, I had almost 

 despaired of turning my studies to account, when a new 

 impulse arrived in the shape of a note from the editor 

 of Chambers's Journal^ begging to know if my 'work 

 on the Ophidia was out, and by whom published ' ? My 

 * work on the Ophidia ' t Could that mean my poor, despised 

 little book that had been long ago submitted among others 

 to those Edinburgh publishers ? My work on the Ophidia ! 

 I began to get better from that day ; and from that date, 

 March 1875, I have had the inexpressible pleasure and 

 privilege of including among my kindest and most sympa- 

 thetic ophiological friends, the Editor of that popular 

 journal. On the Ophidia, he entrusted me with work in 

 various directions, encouraged by which I again returned 

 to town, and to the Zoological Gardens. 



If I am so fortunate as to afford instruction or entertain- 

 ment in the following pages, my readers will join me in 

 congratulating ourselves on the possession of so large and 

 valuable a zoological collection as that in the Regent's 

 Park, without which this book could not have been 

 attempted. And I may embrace this opportunity of express- 



