0653^13 
PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR. 
After having read or consulted most of the published 
works on Ophiology, the Translator never met with 
any satisfactory system of that branch of Natural His- 
tory, until he perused the Essay” of M. Schlegel. 
In the English language certainly there exists nothing 
of the kind ; and scarcely even any descriptions of in- 
dividuals, worthy of consultation, except the admirable 
‘‘ Indian Serpents” of Dr Patrick Russel, the obser- 
vations of Dr John Davy, in his ‘‘ Account of Ceylon,” 
and the remarks in Mr A. Smith’s splendid Zoology 
of Southern Africa.” 
A desire to add to the literature of his country the 
researches of so accomplished and philosophical an 
ophiologist as M. Schlegel, and a wish to afford a 
safe guide to the British Student of Natural History 
in this department, have produced the present volume. 
He would willingly have published a translation of 
the complete work of M. Schlegel; but the low 
state of Ophiology in this country deters any book- 
seller from undertaking so large a work on Serpents, 
