John Hoke (1925–2011)

From the dust jacket:

"Snakes have always seemed a little strange and mysterious to people. Perhaps it's because of their peculiar shape, or because they're so silent -- or so very alone and independent.

As people find out more and more about snakes, they find they're really not mysterious at all. But they do hair their own fascinating ways. They slither quickly along the ground, swim, even climb trees; they catch all kings of live animal food -- yet they have no feet or paws.

Sometimes their food is bigger around than they are -- yet they swallow it whole, and their skins stretch to fit it. Now and then they change skins, leaving their top ones all in one piece, to come out in their bright underneath ones.

Ten inches long or thirty feet -- zoo snakes, tree snakes, water snakes, desert snakes, common snakes of field and forest, poisonous snakes -- they're all here, in a book full of surprises.

How to recognize some of the most common snakes, how to identify poisonous snakes, what snakes are best as pets, how to keep them and how to hatch their eggs -- these and all the astonishing things about snakes' everyday lives make exciting reading.

Paul Wenck's strikingly true-to-life drawings are, in themselves, a fine introductions to snakes."… (mais)