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INTRODUCTION 
A he immense extent of the animal creation, and the boundless variety of 
forms which Crowd upon the attention of the most desultory observer, render 
the acquisition of even a general and superficial knowledge of the whole science, 
the labour of a life. It is, indeed, the splendid and enviable lot of few, to grasp 
with a master mind, like that of Aristotle, of Linnseus, or of Cuvier, the whole 
range of the animal world; and to combine the advantages of leisure and 
opportunity with the power of seizing, by an almost intuitive perception, the 
nature and value of the relations by which beings are associated. The true 
naturalist, even of a humbler grade, will not indeed be satisfied without ac¬ 
quiring some general views of organization; but circumstances of taste or 
opportunity will, in most cases, point out some one or other of the larger 
groups, to which his attention will, for a time at least, be directed, to the com¬ 
parative exclusion of the rest. 
Of the various branches into which the science of Zoology has thus been 
divided, Erpetology, or the study of the Reptilia, has perhaps been the most 
neglected. The superiority of organization in the Mammifera, with the inter¬ 
est attached to the habits of many species, and the utility of others, administer¬ 
ing as they do to our daily wants or comforts,—the elegance of form, the 
splendour of plumage, and the sweetness of note, which render the different 
families of Birds so attractive,—even the varied beauty of the shelly covering 
of the testaceous Mollusca, —but, above all, the endless varieties of form which 
characterize the insect tribes, and the never-ceasing fascination which the 
contemplation of their habits is calculated to excite, have necessarily attracted 
the devotion of most of the votaries of this delightful branch of natural know¬ 
ledge. 
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