TREATMENT OF SNAKES IN CAPTiyiTY. 455 



common name of a snake. You will find that not only may 

 that name be i^urely local and confined to a certain district, so 

 that the creature may assume half a dozen aliases as you 

 proceed, but that in all probability the same word is applied to 

 half a dozen other snakes as well. Even here, where we have 

 practically, one may say, but two ophidians, we hear of the 

 black adder, grey adder, deaf adder, red adder, grass snake, 

 ringed snake, long-cripple, hedge snake, viper, common snake, 

 water-snake, &c, and should not feel at all certain which of the 

 two was indicated on hearing any of these names mentioned, 

 except by those who have made snakes their study. In Wales, 

 terrible stories are told of the malignant disposition and fearful 

 virulence of the Neidr Ddefaid, the " sheep-snake " ; one can 

 conceive the anxious solicitude of a collector on tour in the 

 Principality to secure a specimen, and his unmitigated disgust 

 when his efforts are rewarded by a common Slow-worm, such 

 being the nature of the unpronounceable impostor. Every 

 country, too, has its pet bug-bear among serpents, which over- 

 whelms all distinctions, and causes the Hindu to see a Naja, the 

 Brazilian a Jarraracca, the Indian of the Isthmus a Toboba, and 

 the American backwoodsman a Copperhead, in every creeping 

 thing unblessed with four legs. Casual perplexities exist in 

 addition, to further complicate matters. " Cobra," for example, 

 will convey a well-known limited significance to the minds of 

 most people, without the appended " di capello." But " cobra " 

 is simply the Portuguese term for snake — any snake ; and in 

 all lands where that language is or has been spoken, it retains 

 that meaning, to the great bewilderment of those who hear it for 

 the first time thousands of miles away from the habitat of Naia 

 tripudians. 



A glance at the labels in the Beptilium at Eegent's Park will 

 render this difficulty apparent. The commoner snakes have 

 colloquial titles it is true — boa, python (identical with the genus), 

 rattlesnake, anaconda, moccassin (applied to both innocent and 

 venomous species in the States), and one or two others, none 

 of which would help the collector in the parts of the world from 

 which they hail ; but the majority are despairingly christened 

 with the literal translation of their specific designations, "spotted- 

 headed," " black and yellow." " seven- banded," " ornamented," 

 "annulated," "fugitive," "Clifford's," "Dahl's," "Merrem's," 



