AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 45 



its elongate botly, reacliing to a lengtli of seven feet, 

 and its very wide head. The Brown Tree Snake lives 

 generally among the branches of trees, and is nocturnal 

 in habit, a circumstance which enables it to secure 

 sleeping birds, which, together with their eggs and 

 young, form a fair proportion of its food. It also eats 

 small mammals, frogs and lizards, but its allies are 

 said to be more partial to tlie warm-blooded animals. 



Owing to the fact of it being abroad only at night, 

 this snake is seldom seen, and is, therefore, not nearl}' 

 so well known as the Green Tree Snake. In color it 

 is reddish brown above, with many oblique, black, or 



•dark-brown cross-bands. The under parts are yellowish, 



-or salmon-colored. 



This snake was originally described from a specimen 

 taken at Port Essington, its distribution, as far as 

 known, is Northern and Eastern Australia. 



VENOMOUS COLUBRINE SNAKES. 



Section PROTEROGLYPHA. 

 As before indicated, all the snakes of this section 

 are venomous, sojne are so small as to be almost 

 harmless to man, while others are deadly, These 

 venomous Colubrines are divided into two sub-families, 

 as affecting Australian species, namelj' — the Elajmice, 

 which includes all the snakes not hitherto considered, 

 with the exception of the Sea Snakes, which form the 

 -second sub-family, known as the Ilydrophiince. 



