CONTENTS.
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| I. | SEEING A SNAKE FEED, | [27] |
| II. | SNAKES OF FICTION AND OF FACT, | [41] |
| III. | OPHIDIAN TASTE FOR BIRDS’ EGGS, | [59] |
| IV. | DO SNAKES DRINK? | [75] |
| V. | THE TONGUE OF A SNAKE—PART I. WHAT IT IS ‘NOT,’ | [94] |
| VI. | THE TONGUE OF A SNAKE—PART II. WHAT IT ‘IS,’ | [107] |
| VII. | THE TONGUE OF A SNAKE—PART III. ITS USES, | [115] |
| VIII. | THE GLOTTIS, | [129] |
| IX. | BREATHING AND HISSING OF SNAKES, | [142] |
| X. | HIBERNATION, | [159] |
| XI. | THE TAIL OF A SNAKE, | [170] |
| XII. | OPHIDIAN ACROBATS: CONSTRUCTION AND CONSTRICTION, | [192] |
| XIII. | FRESH-WATER SNAKES, | [221] |
| XIV. | THE PELAGIC OR SEA SNAKES, | [233] |
| XV. | ‘THE GREAT SEA SERPENT,’ | [247] |
| XVI. | RATTLESNAKE HISTORY, | [268] |
| XVII. | THE RATTLE, | [294] |
| XVIII. | THE INTEGUMENT—‘HORNS,’ AND OTHER EPIDERMAL APPENDAGES, | [315] |
| XIX. | DENTITION, | [342] |
| XX. | VIPERINE FANGS, | [368] |
| XXI. | THE CROTALIDÆ, | [381] |
| XXII. | THE XENODONS, | [395] |
| XXIII. | OPHIDIAN NOMENCLATURE, AND VERNACULARS, | [413] |
| XXIV. | DO SNAKES INCUBATE THEIR EGGS? | [431] |
| XXV. | ANACONDA AND ANGUIS FRAGILIS, | [452] |
| XXVI. | ‘LIZZIE,’ | [470] |
| XXVII. | DO SNAKES AFFORD A REFUGE TO THEIR YOUNG? | [483] |
| XXVIII. | SERPENT WORSHIP, ‘CHARMING,’ ETC., | [507] |
| XXIX. | THE VENOMS AND THEIR REMEDIES, | [532] |
| XXX. | NOTES FROM THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, | [561] |
| INDEX, | [593] |
INTRODUCTION.
TO the many friends who have repeatedly asked me, ‘What could induce you to take up such a horrid subject as snakes?’ a few words of explanation must be offered. Some words of apology are also due that I, a learner myself, should aspire to instruct others. I cannot do better, therefore, than tell the history of this book from its birth, and in so doing cancel both obligations. The little history will be a sort of OPHIDIANA, or gossip about snakes; and in this I only follow the example of most herpetologists, who, when writing exclusively on these reptiles, preface their work with some outline of the history of ophiology, and generally with an excuse for introducing the unwelcome subject at all. There is still reason to lament that traditional prejudice invests everything in the shape of a serpent with repulsive qualities, and that these prejudices are being only very slowly swept away by the besom of science.