On Labor Day, 5 September 2011, while I was doing research in Garland, Texas, my cell phone rang. On answering, Darryl Archer, of Manvel, Texas (a town of 7,000, some 24 miles due south of Houston), spoke the following words to me: “Hi, Mr. Cates… my wife just got bit by a snake in our back yard, and I’m hoping you can help me identify what bit her.” [...]