This volume was completed five years ago, but the difficulties of publication due to the war have delayed its appearance until now. Fortunately, very little has been added to our knowledge of Indian snakes in the intervening years, and what has been written that is of value has been incorporated in the book during its progress through the printer’s hands. The general plan and scope of the volume are the same as before, and an account of the regions dealt with and the geographical divisions, will be found in the introduction to volume I. Some 400 species of snakes are now known to inhabit the area covered by this work; 389 species and 17 subspecies are here described (see also page 282). Mr. Boulenger’s volume, published in 1890, contained 264 species; he did not, however, include the whole of the Indo-Chinese sub-region. Most of the work in connection with this volume has been done in the British Museum (Natural History), where the collection of Indian material is very large. In addition I have examined the entire collections belonging to the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and the Bombay Natural History Society, and I must thank the authorities of those institutions for sending their material to me in London. Both these collections have already been critically dealt with the Colonel Frank Wall, and his labours in this respect have greatly eased my task. Indian herpetologists owe Colonel Wall a great debt of gratitude for his work on snakes. During his 30 years’ service in the country he infected others with his enthusiasm and love of the subject, and it is due to him more than any other man that our knowledge of Indian snakes today is so complete. His collection of skulls and his extensive notebooks have been presented by him to the British Museum.
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