People greatly fear venomous snakes, perhaps it is chiefly due to the fact that snakebites have often caused serious injury or death. It is now known that certain snake venoms contain as many as 50 different components, each having its own effect. However, the effect of one component may be modified by the presence of another. Thus, the already complex situation is further complicated by the interaction of the components. The characteristics of the important components in venom and the evolution of venom will be discussed. In order to reduce the possibility of snakebite, the best policy is to become familiar with venomous snakes. On this island, there exist six common terrestrial venomous snakes. The external features such as scale characteristics and color patterns of each species are described in detail and followed by several color photographs. The color photographs may be most helpful to students and of interest to general readers, as they are superior to pen drawings in that they better demonstrate the diagnostic characteristics of the species, thus enabling easier identification of any specimens seen later. In addition, the anatomy of several structures such as the lung and hemipenis are described, as are the habits, habitat, and distribution of each species. A description of the head muscles and biting mechanisms for elapids (cobras and allies) and viperids (asps and vipers) are included in the present treatise. When the student and general reader are fully aware of the biting mechanisms, they will easily understand how two characteristic types of bite patterns are produced when an accident occurs involving either of these two groups of snakes. The bite patterns produced by each of the six local species show tremendous variations; however, the patterns illustrated in this monograph represent the most common ones observed.