CHAPTER I. 
THE CLASS REPTILIA. 
RELATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF REPTILES — IRELAND — NEW ZEA- 
LAND—RELATION TO AMPHIBIANS AND BIRDS—EXISTING 
ORDERS OF REPTILES — BRITISH SPECIES — DIFFICULTY OF 
OBSERVATION—CLASSIFICATION AND TERMINOLOGY USED IN 
BOOK. 
Ix very few countries of the world are the members 
of the class Reprrita so sparsely represented as in 
the British Isles, and in all probability there are 
few persons who reeret that fact. The charm of a 
ramble through solitary English woods, or over the 
more rugged mountains of Scotland and Wales, is 
not materially lessened by the dread of encountering 
venomous serpents, as is the case in so many 
countries which are otherwise delightful. What a 
striking contrast, for example, to the continent of 
America, where “out of some three thousand species 
of living reptiles known, three hundred and forty- 
eight are North American”; while “there are one 
hundred and thirty species of snakes in America 
