THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA

London, Longmans Green & Co. 1912. New edition. 547pp. Very good + burgundy cloth covers gilt with gilt Viper to the front board. Internally fine with folding colour panorama frontis. Numerous black and white ills. Unmarked. A solid copy.

Second and revised edition of this South African herpetology classic. (SABIB 2, p. 252) "FitzSimons's deep interest in snakes, first stimulated in Natal, was continued throughout his life. At first he exhibited a few snakes in glass-fronted cases and these live exhibits were continued once the museum was established in Bird Street. In 1918 he founded a snake park which was the first in Africa and second in the world and in 1925 a larger and more elaborate park was constructed, the concept being entirely his. . As an authority on the snakes of South Africa and their venoms he gained an international reputation and he did pioneer work on the production of anti-snakebite serum." - DSAB III, p. 299.