INTRODUCTION 
(Coronella austriaca), is believed to be very rare, and whilst 
in some districts the two remaining species (Adder and 
Grass Snake) are plentiful, there are, as has been stated 
previously, many places that are Snakeless regions, and 
our own three species are confined to certain parts of 
England, Scotland, and Wales. 
Being inhabitants of warm, or, at any rate, temperate 
countries, our own changeable climate is apparently 
unsuited for these disdained creatures of the wild, yet 
Lizards do find a congenial home much further North 
than Snakes, and at higher elevations. Further points 
are dealt with under the life history of the three species 
included hereafter, but it should be pointed out how much 
original work requires to be done to enable us to piece 
together the place these despised animals occupy in the 
economy of life. For countless centuries Snakes have 
been regarded with awe, fear, or superstition, and the 
whole of this little volume could quite easily be filled with 
quotations from poets and philosophers, as well as 
scientists and sages, who have perpetrated sad errors 
concerning them. Strange indeed that the Class Reptzha, 
coming as it does between our feathered bipeds on the 
one hand and the amphibians on the other, should be 
so looked down upon when, as a matter of scientific lore, 
the reptiles are cousins of them both. Our earliest 
known birds can be popularly referred to as Flying 
Reptiles, for as such they are revealed by fossil remains 
which the earth has yielded. These weird creatures 
were devoid of feathers, had large bulbous eyes, great 
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