450 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



one another by gradual yet distinctly traceable degrees, insomuch 

 that had any tribe — even the snakes — been blotted out we should 

 still know what it was by the shape of the blank it would leave, 

 like a piece missing out of a child's puzzle ; that not only does 

 this connection exist between the beings themselves, smooth and 

 harmonious from man downwards, but that their incidental and 

 collateral conditions are analogous — their physiology and path- 

 ology, the microscopical characteristics and functions of their 

 allied tissues, their chemical and therapeutical reactions ; and 

 this leads to the recognition of the fact that every discovery 

 made, every new peculiarity noted, however trivial apparently, 

 may at a future date have some important bearing upon 

 ourselves. 



Many people are now beginning to keep reptiles. Various 

 popular and scientific journals have ventilated this department 

 somewhat of late years ; but it is a field little explored as yet, 

 and perhaps presents more opportunities to the inquirer than any 

 other. Indeed, the very superstitions which hover about the 

 subject — as of a serpent's licking its prey, its power of "fasci- 

 nation," the "antipathies" between it and other animals, 

 " charming," &c. — are scarcely dispelled ; and when such a 

 point as the allegation of a Viper swallowing its young is still in 

 dispute among scientists, it may be imagined there is a great 

 deal to be learnt without the pursuit of any very recondite in- 

 vestigations. The Viper is one of the commonest and most 

 widely diffused of European snakes, and if the act in question 

 be performed at all it must be big and patent enough to strike 

 the most casual of observers ; yet definite testimony on that 

 head might make a man's mark in the annals of Herpetology. 



It is extraordinary that ground so fertile of results should 

 have been neglected as much as it has. True, these creatures 

 cannot be studied in their wild state, as birds can, but they are 

 far less unnaturally circumstanced in confinement than bird, 

 beast, or fish must be. A snake's behaviour in a cage of proper 

 size, with attention to proper details, is probably more nearly 

 assimilated to its habits in a state of freedom than that of any 

 other animal. Nor are these details which require attention 

 complicated or difficult of execution, as I shall hope to show, for 

 when once started fairly a snake is the easiest thing in the world 

 to " keep going." And to facilities for observation must be added 



