This standard work is now available in its fourth, completely revised and greatly expanded edition. In the first part, the following chapters are covered: snakes in nature and in human care, legal questions of snake keeping (by attorney Dietrich Rössel), diseases of snakes, family Xenopeltidae (rainbow snakes), family Boidae (giant snakes), family Acrochordidae (warthogs), family Colubridae (vipers), genera Natrix, Nerodia, Amphiesma, Rhabdobis, Xenochropis, Thamnophis, and Tropidonophis. The second part contains: subfamily Natricinae (water vipers and relatives), subfamily Xenodontinae (unequal-toothed vipers), and subfamily Colubrinae (land and tree vipers).