Having reduced a very large circle of anomalous reptiles, till the Ophidia only are in possession of the enclosure, let me endeavour to dispose of these according to the present accepted methods—not of classification, or this volume would be mere lists of names. In 1858, when Dr. Günther arranged and classified the collection in the British Museum, there were 3100 colubrine snakes (those with no viperine features); and when you think of these three thousand odd having, on an average, a dozen names each (the reason for which is deferred till the later chapters), my readers will cheerfully dispense with much in the way of classes and orders, especially as the present methods are reckoned very defective, and there is a loud cry for a new classification of the _Reptilia_. Already the reader can surmise some of the difficulties, and they will be more evident as we proceed. The whole order of Ophidia may be divided into the venomous and the non-venomous, or into other two divisions, viz. those which approach the Saurians, having scales alike all round, vestiges of shoulder bones and hind limbs, and with ribs nearly encircling the body; and those which have the broad ventral plates, no rudimentary limbs, and a tongue far more extensible than the previous group. It will not, I trust, be out of place to introduce a table as presented to us at some of the ‘Davis Lectures’ at the London Zoological Gardens; for I think I am safe in saying this arrangement is adopted by nearly all our living authorities. To go back to the days of our childhood and the game of ‘Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?’—the original three kingdoms of Nature,—the first heads our table: ANIMAL KINGDOM. Next comes the sub-kingdom, comprising five divisions, namely mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs, and fishes, each of which is divided into class, order, family, genus, species, with sometimes a sub-class or a sub-order. Professor St. George Mivart divides the whole of the reptiles into—(1) _Chelonia_, the tortoises; (2) _Ophidia_, the snakes; (3) _Crocodilia_, or _Loricata_, the crocodiles; (4) _Sauria_, the lizards. _Batrachia_, the frogs, he separates, because they begin life as a fish. Originally there were nine orders of reptiles; then for a long while we were taught that there were four,—Chelonians, Ophidians, Saurians, and Batrachians. Every one of the above so merges into the others that many herpetologists differ in drawing the lines between them. If we were asked to define our little friend, the ring snake, that ate a frog while we were studying his anatomy, we would say that he belongs to the— 1. ANIMAL KINGDOM. 2. SUB-KINGDOM, _Vertebrata_. 3. CLASS, _Reptilia_. 4. ORDER, _Ophidia_. 5. FAMILY, _Tropidonotus_. 6. GENUS, _Coluber_. 7. SPECIES, _Natrix_.