452 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



If, then, our present acquaintance with their mere physical 

 attributes is so far from complete, is it any marvel that we know 

 next to nothing of their habits and propensities ? And is it not 

 justifiable to declare that we know next to nothing, when we are 

 in ignorance with regard to hundreds of snakes as to whether 

 they kill their prey by the grand distinctive process of con- 

 striction or by common biting ; and (with a few exceptions) can- 

 not say which species are oviparous, and which produce living 

 young ? 



Practical personal observation — neither accepting nor re- 

 jecting the thousand and one items of current miscellaneous 

 opinion concerning them until we have seen with our own eyes, in 

 constant familiar intercourse with them, sufficient to form conclu- 

 sions for ourselves — is the only way to gain information on these 

 matters which can be of any value. The extent to which mere 

 hearsay testimony has been transmitted from writer to writer on 

 this topic is remarkable. When the venomous Lizard (Heloderma 

 horridwm) arrived at the Zoological Gardens and caused a great 

 sensation among both scientists and sight-seers, I happened to 

 meet a friend who was compiling notes for a paper on the sub- 

 ject in the Reading Eoom at the British Museum. He was 

 almost walled-up alive by " authorities," ancient and modern ; 

 huge tomes in Latin, French, Spanish, German and English, 

 some bound in antique boards, with yellowed leaves and old- 

 world type, others glossy-backed and crisp from the press, were 

 piled high about him ; from these he was carefully and laboriously 

 extracting long quotations. But how many of these writers, I 

 asked, have been to Mexico and studied the creature on its own 

 ground ? how many, even of those who have been there, have 

 seen a live Heloderme ? Not one, as far as we could discover. 

 Very well, then, upon what does their authority rest ? upon the 

 traditions and legends of the Indians who worship the creature 

 as an incarnation of then: evil deity, and seek to propitiate it 

 with tortillas and silver beads ! Possibly, of course, the evidence 

 they might furnish might be correct in certain particulars — 

 though it may be laid down, as a broad general rule, that for 

 pure unadulterated superstition, utterly devoid of any ground- 

 work of fact or reason concerning a reptile, you must go to the 

 natives of the country which it inhabits ; but, obviously, the 

 school-boy who pays his sixpence to go to the Zoo, and stares at 



