Snakes I have known and loved

摘要

Growing up as I did where adders- Britain's only venomous snake- were still fairly plentiful, and having spent many happy summer days searching for and capturing them, I have no trouble understanding other people's enthusiasm for snakes. Unfortunately, this view is far from universal, so books on other groups of animals-generally birds and large mammals-hugely outnumber snake books. Recently there have been a few attempts to redress the balance, notably Richard Shine's Australian Snakes: A Natural History, which covered more ground than its title would imply and took an ecological approach.