50 SNAKES, 



1 66 1 : — ' Mr. Templer, an ingenious Man, discoursing of the 

 Nature of Serpents, told us that some in the waste Places of 

 Lincolnshire do grow to a Great Bigness, and do feed upon 

 Larkes which they take thus : — They observe when the Larke 

 is soared to the Highest, and do crawl till they come to be 

 just underneath them, and there they place themselves with 

 their mouth uppermost ; and there, as it is conceived, they 

 do eject Poyson upon the Bird ; for the Bird do suddenly 

 come down again in its course of a Circle, and falls directly 

 into the Mouth of the Snake.' 



This story, founded on fact, is related by a beholder 

 who, to use the words of Dr. Andrew Wilson when dis- 

 coursing on ' Zoological Myths,' made * an unscientific use 

 of his imagination.' Our largest English snake has no 

 poison to ' eject, as it was conceived.' Quite possible that 

 it might have looked up towards the singing lark, and 

 with the swiftness of the bird in its descent, glided towards 

 the spot, ready to pounce upon it. The absurdity of poison 

 being ejected upwards through a needle-like fang, — had 

 the snake possessed such an instrument, — and to such a 

 height, is evident. 



Having reduced a very large circle of anomalous rep- 

 tiles, till the Ophidia only are in possession of the en- 

 closure, let me endeavour to dispose of these according 

 to the present accepted methods — not of classification, or 

 this volume would be mere lists of names. In 1858, when 

 Dr. Gunther arranged and classified the collection in the 

 British Museum, there were 3100 colubrine snakes (those 

 with no viperine features) ; and when you think of 

 these three thousand odd having, on an average, a dozen 



