IV INTRODUCTION. 



long before the Museum collection can be rendered quite 

 complete. 



The number of type specimens in the Museum amounts 

 in all to 30, of which 12 were described by Blyth, 5 by Blan- 

 ford and myself respectively, 3 by Stoliczka and Anderson 

 and 2 by Theobald. A complete list of the types also will 

 be found below. 



The classification adopted in the followinsf list is that of 

 Mr. Boulenger's in his Reptiles of British India ; this classi- 

 fication however includes only those genera found within 

 the limits of the Indian Empire, but I have endeavoured, as 

 far as possible, to interpolate the exotic genera into their 

 rightful positions. 



In this, however, I fear, I may have made a good many 

 errors, still there is absolutely no modern standard work on 

 Snakes, and I thought it better to try and adopt a new 

 classification than to fall back on obsolete arrangements. 



With regard to nomenclature I have of course followed 

 Boulenger throughout for Indian Snakes ; for North Ameri- 

 can Snakes I have made use of a monograph by Mr. Garman 

 published in the 8th volume of tlie Memoirs of the Museum 

 of the Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, Cambridge, 

 Mass., for the Australian Snakes I have used Krefft's Snakes 

 of Australia and for European forms Schreiber's Herpetologia 

 Europaea ; for African and South American forms I have been 

 unable to find any more modern general work than Giinther's 

 Catalogue of Colubrine Snakes in the British Museum, and 

 Gray's previous Catalogue of the non-colubriiie forms. 



The principal donors of the snakes in the Indian Museum 

 are as follows : — 



Col. Godwin Austen, Mr. S, E. Peal and Capt. J. Butler 

 from Assam ; Col. Beddome from the South India, Mr. 

 Blanford from Persia and also from many other pa^ts of 

 India; Mr. J. Gammie from Sikkim, other donors from 

 various parts of India are Dr. Anderson, Mr. W. Theobald, 

 Dr. F. Stoliczka and Sir J. Fayrer. 



Description of the new species and notes on the Geogra- 

 phical distribution and other points of interest, made out 

 during the examination of the Indian Museum collection, 

 will be found in a paper in the 60th volume of the Journal of 

 the Asiatic Society which is referred to throughout in the 

 List. 



In conclusion I have to thank Mr. Boulenger of the 

 British Museum for help in naming several of the most in- 

 teresting forms and for many hints and suggestions. 



