414 SNAKES. 



* pits ' or depressions in the face ; the viperine form of head ; 

 the position and number of head-shields ; the sub-caudal 

 plates, and so on ; and in such resemblances I am strongly 

 inclined to suspect that there are other interfering causes 

 than a common ancestry, though this, no doubt, has much 

 to do with it. 



* "What is to prevent our having one fixed name, and 

 keeping to it ? ' exclaim the sorely-puzzled amateur natur- 

 alists. And well they may, on seeing in some works on 

 ophiology a list of synonyms sometimes filling several 

 pages. 



By way of illustration let us take the little spine-toothed 

 snake described among the egg-eaters in chap. iii. This 

 snake was known to be edeiitulus by Linnaeus, who never- 

 theless gave it the generic name of Coluber^ because it has 

 two rows of sub-caudal plates ; and the specific scaber, 

 because it has roughly-carinated scales — both names equally 

 applicable to a score of other snakes, and not at all de- 

 scribing its unique dentition. This latter was first made a 

 distinguishing feature by Jourdan, 1833, who assigned it the 

 generic name of Rachiodofi, spine-toothed. Lacepede called 

 it simply La rude ; Wagler, Dasypeltis, thick or rough-scaled, 

 the integument rather than the dentition still receiving prior 

 attention by the majority of observers. 



Dr. Andrew Smith in 1829 more closely watched its 

 habits, and considered that its peculiar dentition was suffi- 

 cient to separate it from the Oligodon (few-toothed) family, 

 under the new generic name of Anodon, with the specific 

 typiis to mark it as a distinct type. Afterwards he found 

 that the word Anodon had been already adopted by natural- 



