KILLER SNAKES

If such a snake"—a 37-foot anaconda—"climbed up the side of a three-story house, its head would reach the roof before its tail left the ground." "A baby cobra is ready for action as soon as it hatches." "Two drops of black mamba poison can kill a grown man within ten minutes." "When [the death adder] bites, it hangs on and chews to get more poison into the wound." "A gaboon viper can bite through a person's foot." No doubt about it, Freedman's crisp characterizations are as sharply on the mark as a rattler's one-second attack. The equally apt photos include a slithery tangle of Australian taipans ("the most ferocious snake in the world"), a close-enough look at a gaboon viper's fangs, and, altogether, a snappy variety of views and angles.