PREFACE. 



The object of this Catalogue is to give a description of 

 all the species of Colubrine Snakes in the Collection of 

 the British Museum, with an indication of their history 

 and origin, and an account of the species, to be found 

 in other Collections, which are desiderata to the National 

 Museum. 



Dr. Giinther observes, " In a part of the Animal King- 

 dom, which, like the non-venomous Colubrinae, shows so 

 many forms intermediate between the most remote ex- 

 tremes, the systematic arrangement is a difficult task, the 

 more so as those forms do not offer any other well-marked 

 characters. An attempt to base the distribution of these 

 animals into families on a single character, instead of on 

 a combination of external, anatomical and physiological 

 characters, can never give a satisfactory result ; and the 

 seventh volume of the Erpetologie generale, by MM. Du- 

 meril and Bibron, consequently offers a system far from, 



