86 AUSTEALIAN SNAKES. 



developed in Enhychnna. There is generally a small notcli on each side of 

 the lobule, for the passage of the two points of the tongue. Cantor says 

 that when the snake is out of the water and blinded by the light, it freely 

 makes use of its tongue as a feeler. 



" The food of the Sea Snakes consists entirely of small fish ; I have 

 found all kinds of fish in their stomach — among them species with very 

 strong spines [Aijogon, Silurokls). As all these animals are killed by the 

 poison of the snake before they are swallowed, and as their muscles are 

 perfectly relaxed, their armature is harmless to the snake, which com- 

 mences to swallow its prey from the head, and depresses the sjiine as 

 deglutition proceeds. 



" There cannot be the slightest dou.bt that the Sea Snakes belong to 

 the most poisonous species of the whole order. E-ussell and Cantor have 

 ascertained it by direct observation ; tortoises, other snakes, and fish, died 

 from their bite in less than an hour, and a man succumbed after 

 four hours. Accidents are rarely caused by them, because they are 

 extremely shy, and swim away on the least alarm ; but when surprised in 

 the submarine cavities forming their natural retreats, they will, like any 

 other poisonous terrestrial snake, dart at a pole ; or, when out of the water, 

 they attempt to bite every object near them, even turning round to wound 

 their own bodies, f Cantor.) They cannot endure captivity, dying in the 

 course of two or three days, even when kept in capacious tanks. 



" The males may be easily distinguished from the females by a distinct 

 swelling on each side of the tail extending from the root to, or beyond, the 

 middle of its length ; sometimes the whole tail is thickened, and such 

 specimens may be taken for distinct species. All the species are vivi- 

 parous, bringing forth, without leaving the sea, fi'om four to nine young 

 ones. The young are more brightly colored than the adult, the faint cross 

 bands of the latter being complete black rings in the former ; the tail also 

 of the young is comparatively thicker, and less compressed than in the 

 adult. That they live to a great age I infer from the circumstance that 

 we find relatively very large examples of almost every sjiecies, but that 

 such examples are very scarce. Now as they have very formidable and 

 very numerous enemies in the sea eagles {Hallaetus), in the sharks, and 

 other raptatorial fishes, it appears to me to be a just conclusion that, if 



