100 VENOMS 
belly; head black, with a broad white band across the occiput, and 
another narrower and irregular one across the snout; nose black. 
Total length, 590 millimetres ; tail 36. 
Habitat : Australia. 
There are no poisonous snakes in New Zealand. In New 
Caledonia no terrestrial poisonous snakes are known, but Hydro- 
phiide abound on its shores, as on those of the majority of the 
islands of the Pacific. 
In Australia, especially in New South Wales and farther to the 
north, fatalities due to the bites of poisonous snakes are not rare. 
The most dangerous species are: Acanthophis antarcticus (the 
Death Adder), Diemenia textilis (the Brown Snake), Pseudechis 
porphyriacus (the Black Snake), and Notechis scutatus or Hoplo- 
cephalus curtus (the Tiger Snake). 
The health authorities of this country have accordingly taken 
the wise precaution of circulating very widely among the public 
coloured placards bearing illustrations of these four species, with 
a description of the essential anatomical details by which they may 
be recognised. Similar placards are exhibited in all the schools, 
and a generous distribution is made of instructions, printed on 
handkerchiefs, indicating the most effective method of treating 
poisonous bites. 
In Queensland, according to information furnished to me by 
Mr. C. W. De Vis, late Director of the Queensland Museum, Bris- 
bane, the number of deaths resulting from the bites of poisonous 
snakes has been only twenty-seven in ten years. 
E.—AMERICA. 
The fauna of the New World includes only a very small number 
of poisonous snakes belonging to the family CozuBripx. The 
Genus Hlaps alone is represented there by twenty-eight species, 
scattered over Mexico, Central America, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, 
Colombia, and Brazil. 
