SNAKES. 



427 



account of the cayman with that which Swainson wrote for Lardner, 

 he must evidently come to the following conclusion, viz. that Swain- 

 son, when he wrote his account of this reptile, was either totally 

 unacquainted with its habits and economy, or that he wilfully perverted 

 them, and made out the cayman to be a " slow-paced and even timid 

 animal " in order to be revenged on me, who had described it as 

 swift, and one of extraordinary ferocity ; for, be it known that in 1837, 

 I found myself under the necessity of writing to Swainson a very 

 pungent ornithological letter, which was printed. He never answered 

 this letter ; and I thought that I had done with him altogether, till in 

 1839, whilst I was in Italy, out came Lardner's volume on Fishes, 

 containing the sweeping extract which I have transcribed at the head 

 of this paper. Swainson was then about to take his final departure 

 to New Zealand. Steam will soon convey him a copy of this. I 

 call upon him to contradict the statements which it contains, or to 

 acknowledge the truth and the propriety of them. 



SNAKES. 



" NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET." 



WERE I to offer a treatise in defence of Nero, or of Herod, or of our 

 own Harry the Eighth, perhaps, I should not astonish my reader 

 more than I am about to do, in an attempt to advocate the cause 

 of snakes. Possibly, the sad affair in Paradise, where the wily ser- 

 pent acted so conspicuous a part, may have entailed upon its family, 

 the execration of mankind. Certainly, notorious is the fact, that 

 the whole tribe of serpents, great and small, noxious or innoxious, in 

 all parts of the known world, can find no mercy at the hand of man. 

 A Bengal tiger, crouching in the jungle, is not more dreaded by an 

 eastern traveller, than our little English adder, basking on a sunny 

 bank, is feared by those who go to gather primroses. In fact, all 

 nations, civilized or rude, are unanimous in asserting the malignity 

 of snakes : whilst dictionaries are ransacked by writers, for words of 



