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The largest family of snakes, comprising five subfamilies: Colubrinae, Natricinae, Homalopsinae, Lycodontinae, and Xenodontinae. They show a great diversity of eating habits, some eating almost anything, others having a specialized diet. They can be oviparous, ovoviviparous, or viviparous. The majority of North American snakes are colubrines. Among the colubrids are king snakes, water moccasins, water snakes, and garter snakes. Some genera are poisonous. (Goin, Goin, and Zug, Introduction to Herpetology, 3d ed, pp321-29)