EDITORIAL INFORMATION

This volume is the first to provide a comprehensive coverage of the colubrid snakes of the Elaphe complex, a total of 40 species are described. It includes 420 colour photographs, many of which depict rare or little-known species, 48 distribution maps and 121 black & white line drawings.

(Extracted from the back cover).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Preface.

-Acknowledgements.

-Introduction.

-GENERAL SPECIES ACCOUNT:

-Generic Synonyms.

-Etymology.

-Common Names.

-Taxa not Belonging to the Genus Elaphe.

-General Description of the Genus Elaphe.

-Paleoherpetological Aspects.

-Systematic Relationships.

-Distribution.

-Natural History.

-Reproduction.

-Colour Variation / Colour Mutation.

-Ratsnakes and Man.

-SPECIES ACCOUNTS:

-Old World Species.

-New World Species.

-Appendix I: Vernacular Names.

-Appendix II: Preserved Specimens Examined.

-Bibliography (Literature Cited).

-Index to Scientific Names.

OUR REVIEW

This extensive, DinA4 sized book is a careful monograph of the Colubrid Snakes of the Genus Elaphe Fitzinger. The work is divided into two sections. The first one is a summary of the whole genus. The second, occupying a great percentage of the book, presents each species and subspecies one by one, with detailed descriptions. The information is very well ordered, and a good deal of it consists in drawings and outlines that clearly show the characteristics that the author intends to describe. All this is complemented with an extended bibliography, with indications to the precise references at the end of each chapter.

A remarkable appendix, unusual in scientific literature of this kind, is the one devoted to listing the equivalences of the names given to the species in fifty languages. The author and his collaborators point out that of these popular names one can sometimes learn a lot about the relationship of each species with its natural environment and with the human population that traditionally has lived with it.

The bibliograpy section is likewise important, consisting of 2,800 carefully evaluated references.

This book is, therefore, very useful indeed for every herpetologist interested in this genus.