22 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS. 



Two of our English snakes belong to the first and one to the 

 third sub-order. 



There is a prevailing impression among persons who have not 

 given any special attention to snakes or serpents that the two 

 words imply different kinds of reptiles, the latter being often 

 associated with the more formidable and dangerous, and the 

 former with the less harmful kinds. A snake and a serpent are 

 one and the same reptile, the distinction being philological and 

 not zoological. The word " serpent " is from the Latin serpo, to 

 creep, and this from the Greek ep7ro>. Serpo or Jterpo had 

 reference to the creeping movements, and was applied to' crawling 

 creatures generally. So also was the Saxon word " snake," from 

 snaca, used for all the small reptiles of northern Europe. The 

 two words belong to the history of Great Britain. "Serpent" having 

 been introduced by the Romans became incorporated with the 

 language of the country long before the northern invaders made 

 their appearance here. From the Romans came tales of 

 enormous and fearful serpents ; and when the Scandinavians 

 arrived and talked of their snakes, the word would represent only 

 the smaller reptiles peculiar to the north. The truly English, or 

 rather British word, " snake," came easily from all or any of the 

 words expressing the same in the language of our northern 

 visitors ; the Danes, with their snog or snekke, the Anglo-Saxon 

 snaca, the Swedish snok y and the Icelandic snakr^ snokr, all 

 implied small creeping things, and would naturally represent the 

 same in Britain. 



The Greek word for a snake exclusively was ophis> from o<is, 

 whence we obtain the scientific word which heads this chapter, 

 also ophiology, ophidian, etc. ; while the word serpo, erpo, or 

 herpo, gives its name to the science of reptiles generally, Herpeto- 

 logy, with Herpetologist, or Erpetologist, etc. For a true snake 

 the Latin is anguis and coluber, the former signifying the strangling, 

 constricting habits, the latter the coiling, winding movements. 



One or two other ideas now, I trust, fast being discarded 

 are that snakes are " slimy," and that their tongue is an instru- 

 ment of injury; and yet, notwithstanding its extremely slender 

 and hair-like tips, that it is used (as some old writers have 

 represented) to lick a large, rough-coated animal all over before 

 it is swallowed ; a task in comparison with which that of Sisyphus 

 would be easy ; the said lubrication being about as practicable as 

 to lay the dust of London with a watering-pot. The reputed 

 " sliminess " probably originated in the sliding, gliding, noiseless 

 movements of snakes, and which may convey an idea of 

 slipperiness, particularly in the smooth-scaled kinds ; but which, 



