Originally published in 1913, this book deals with the snakes found in India and Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and clearly describes how to identify and recognize the different kinds of poisonous terrestrial snakes. The snakes have been classified in different ways, and the author noted that the colour of different snakes and their young differ, and as such cannot be taken as the authentic means of identification. The book is divided in three parts. The first part deals with the identification of Indian land snakes. In the second part snake bite and snake poisoning have been described, and in the third part details have been given for treatment of snake poisoning, preventive measures to be adopted and local and special treament in case of the commoner snakes.