INTRODUCTION TO THE CLASS OF REPTILES 5 



Young Americans, I exhort you to take a broad and sen- 

 sible view of the reptilian world — as of every other great 

 subject. Many of these creatures are worth knowing, some 

 because they are wonderfully interesting, some because they 

 are useful and a very few because they are dangerous. None 

 of them, however, are "slimy"! A snake may be cold to the 

 touch, but its skin is as clean and free from slime as a watch- 

 chain. What is more, there is no living creature, not even a 

 dolphin, dripping from the sea, which possesses a skin dis- 

 playing the beautiful pattern of colors and the rainbow iri- 

 descence of the reticulated python, of the East Indies. In 

 reality there are a great number of reptiles that are undeni- 

 ably beautiful. 



I would it were possible to touch upon all the Orders of 

 Reptiles, extinct as well as living, and introduce some of the 

 gigantic and wonderful lizards that were like kangaroos, rhi- 

 noceroses and sea-lions, and also like nothing else under 

 the sun; but in this work it is impossible. There is space 

 available only for the four Orders of living Reptiles ; the seven 

 that are extinct can be studied elsewhere by those who be- 

 come specially interested in this subject. 1 



The Grand Divisions of Living Reptiles. — There are, 

 all told, eleven Orders of the Class Reptilia; but seven of 

 them are extinct, and for the present these will be left out of 

 consideration. The four Orders of living reptiles are made 

 up as shown in the following synopsis: 



1 American readers are particularly referred to the two very excellent and val- 

 uable books by Raymond L. Ditmars, Curator of Reptiles in the New York Zo- 

 ological Park, entitled "The Reptile Book" (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York) 

 and "Reptiles of the World" (Sturgis & Walton Co., New York). 



