We studied a collection of snakes (Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia, Hapsidophrys lineatus, Philothamnus heterodermus, Rhamnophis batesii [Colubridae], Dendroaspis jamesoni jamesoni, Naja melanoleuca [Elapidae], Aparallactus modestus, Polemon gracilis, Psammophis cf. phillipsii [Lamprophiidae], Letheobia caeca [Typhlopidae], Bitis arietans, B. gabonica and B. nasicornis, and Causus maculatus [Viperidae]) presumably made in Oyem, Woleu-Ntem Province, northeastern Gabon, and housed in the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium. The analysis of the letters sent by the collector to the museum reveals that some of these snakes were actually collected near Franceville in Haut-Ogooué Province. We examined a Hydrophis platurus (Elapidae) presumably originating from Gabon and housed in the collections of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium; an analysis of the collections entry register indicates that it was in fact probably caught in West Papua. One snake species is newly recorded from Haut-Ogooué and Woleu-Ntem provinces each. The confirmation of the occurrence of Polemon gracilis in Gabon brings the number of reptile species documented for the country to 129. We report a case of predation by Bitis arietans on a bird.