44 

 CHAPTER II.— Diagnosis of an unknown Snake 



AND method of DESCRIPTION. 



The student of Ophiology should take some common and 

 well-kno-wn snake such as Ptyas mucosus and practise 

 making the description of it with a view to familiarize him- 

 self with the various characters. He should also practise 

 drawing the head-shields; to do this correctly, he must 

 begin by drawing the vertical, and then gradually build up 

 the other shields round it ; to draw a snake full length in a 

 natural attitude is a difficult task to any but a cunning 

 limner ; but an exact representation of the head and neck is 

 possible to any one who will take a little trouble about it. 

 Colouring the drawing accurately is far from an easy task, 

 and requires some study of the natural process by which 

 the colours have become blended. 



When an unknown snake is required to be identified, the 

 first step is to determine the family to which it belongs. 

 This can be done readily by means of the synopsis given 

 in the preceding Chapter. If the snake be found to belong 

 to the harmless Sub-order its place in the three Sections into 

 which I have divided the families should be first determined 

 after which the diagnosis of family, genus and species can 

 be completed by reference to the Descriptive Catalogue 

 further on. If it does not appear to belong to any of the 

 species described, an accurate description should be drawn 

 up, while the specimen is fresh, for future reference in 

 case it should turn out to have been hitherto undescribed. 



It is necessary to lay down a system of description for 

 snakes in general which will prevent useless details being 

 given and direct the attention to the important points. 

 Accurate description may be given very neatly in Latin ; we 

 must try and imitate in English the conciseness of the more 



