FOREWORD 
Reptiles and amphibians are perhaps the most engaging of all animals, and 
the least appreciated. Man has made friends with most of his other fellow 
animals. Dogs, cats and birds have long been his household companions; 
he rides on the backs of horses, camels and elephants; cows eat his hay 
in exchange for their milk; he admires the sleek beauty of the lions and 
polar bears in the zoo; and in the evening he even chuckles at movies which 
have as actors animated and likable representations of mice, ducks, pigs 
and hens. 
Yet, to date, very few people have had many kind words to say for 
the snakes and other reptiles or even for their distant cousins, the toads, 
frogs and kindred amphibians. Ever since the Garden of Eden most of us 
have gone on the assumption that creatures gliding on their bellies (which 
some of them do, of course, merely because they have no feet) must be 
inherently evil and frightening. 
Actually, there is almost no ground for such an attitude on our part. 
Some snakes and a few crocodiles will attack man when provoked or fright¬ 
ened, but so will almost all the larger animals; even, under certain condi¬ 
tions, such timid creatures as deer and mice. 
As a matter of fact, “snake stories,” no matter how entertaining they 
may seem, usually should be classed with “fish stories” as far as their 
veracity is concerned. And this is a pity, for the true stories of the serpents 
are frequently even more fascinating than the fictional. 
There is no truth, for instance, in the story of the “hoop snake” which 
puts its own tail in its mouth and rolls briskly downhill; but it is true that 
there is a boa so timid that it frequently rolls itself into a ball, which can 
be rolled along the ground or even tossed in the air. 
It isn’t true, either, that some snakes are able to milk cows; but there 
actually is an even more astonishing reptile, the tuatara, which has three 
eyes, the third set neatly in the top of its head. 
