Of course, there are snakes and crocodiles which cannot by any stretch 
of the imagination be regarded as house pets. Some of them are dangerous 
— almost as dangerous when frightened or annoyed as a mountain lion, for 
instance, or a grizzly bear. 
But for every venomous snake which is likely to attack a man there 
are hundreds of reptiles which befriend human beings by eating mice and 
insects. Some, such as the king snake and the black snake go even further 
by devouring poisonous reptiles. Some of these gentler snakes can even 
be trained to have confidence in friendly human beings, and to regard a 
garden or a lawn as their protected home, much as do pet toads. 
It has been the aim of this book to sift the facts from the fanciful 
stories of the reptiles and amphibians. The scientific story of these cold¬ 
blooded creatures is seldom as fantastic as the one based on superstition; 
but it is frequently even more readable and exciting. 
All of the living representative reptiles and amphibians — croco- 
dilians, tuataras, lizards, snakes, turtles, coecilians, salamanders, newts, 
frogs and toads — have been included in this account. Brief introductions to 
these two classes and their orders precede each chapter of the book and serve 
to epitomize and classify the species. Unless otherwise stated, the dimen¬ 
sions given in the text are average — not maximum. 
It is sincerely hoped that our readers, after studying this book with 
its many photographs, drawings, maps and charts, will be in a position to 
assure others that the majority of reptiles and amphibians are peaceful, 
quiet, useful and inoffensive creatures, ill deserving the evil reputation 
which ignorance of their true nature has given them and certainly meriting 
man’s protection and conservation. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
The following persons and their institutions cooperated to a con¬ 
siderable extent in the production of the book. They are in nowise respon¬ 
sible, of course, for editorial opinions, or possible errors that may have 
crept into the text. We extend to them our thanks and appreciation for their 
institutional services which went far to provide this work with its wealth 
of illustrations. 
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