Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life

Excerpt from Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent LifeOn the other hand, those who can look at a snake with unprejudiced eyes and study its habits, find continual reason to wonder at and admire the extraordinary features which exhibit themselves in its organization. Owing to their retiring habits, many of them nocturnal, and partly in consequence Of preconceived errors, less is understood about them than almost any other natural group of animals; therefore - as the reader Will discover - a student, when left to himself, has to wade through ages of writers in order to find out what to believe regarding them. Scientific Ophiologists are still engaged in settling mooted questions concerning them. But apart from science there is a glamour of poetry, romance, and mystery about Snakes, and not without reason. There has been a great deal of what we may call 'drawing-room Natural History' of late years charmingly sensational and romantic; attractive also in illustrations and colouring, but not always intended as reliable guides for students.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.