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INTRODUCT ION.
T he immense extent of the animal creation, and the boundless variety of
forms which crowd upon the attention of the inost desultory observer, render
the acquisition of even a general and sup■ erfici• al knowledge of the whole sci. enpc e, 5 sv
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 Linnaeus, 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 acquiring
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 comparative
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 interest
attached to the habits of many species, and the utility of others, administering
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 knowledge.