70 OPHIDIAN REPTILES. 



of Africa, and also by some of the worst Snakes that inhabit 

 Australia. In the colony of Victoria alone as many as ten species 

 of Snakes are known, one only of which, Morelia variegata, is 

 harmless ; and one only of them, the formidable Death-adder 

 (Acantkopis antarctica), belongs to the sul>order of the Viperine 

 Snakes. The rest are included among the Colubriform Yenemous 

 Snakes, and most of the accidents from poisonous Snakes in that 

 oolony are due to what is there ; known as the Carpet Snake, 

 HoplocephaluA curtus, while the Snake that bears the same name 

 in the adjacent colony of New South Wales is the innocuous 

 Morelia spilotes, which is a small Serpent of the family of Pythonidae. 

 Of the total number of Snakes known in all Australia, by far the 

 greater number are venemous, which is the reverse of what occurs 

 elsewhere. Only about five species, however, are really dangerous 

 throughout the great island-continent, for in many of them the 

 poison is by no means virulent. Thus, of Diemansia psammophis, 

 which sometimes exceeds four feet in length, Mr. KreiFt remarks 

 that " its bite does not cause any more irritation than the sting of 

 a bee." Also, that " the bite of Hoplocephalus variegatus is not 

 sufficiently strong to endanger the life of a man. I have been 

 wounded by it several times, " writes Mr. Kreff't, " and experienced 

 no bad symptoms beyond a slight headache ; the spot where the 

 fang entered turning blue to about the size of a shilling for a few 

 days." Again, of Brachysoma diadema, "this very handsome 

 little Snake is venemous, but never offers to bite, and may be 

 handled with impunity." Far otherwise, however, is the venom of 

 Hoplocephalus curtus, and also of some others, H. curtus is one of 

 the worst Snakes of Australia, where it inhabits the more temperate 

 parts of the country from east to west. Its bite is almost as deadly 

 as that of the Indian Cobra, to which it is, indeed, considerably 

 allied. " A good--sized Dog bitten became paralyzed within three 

 minutes, and was dead in fifty minutes afterwards ; a Goat died 

 in thirty-five minutes; a Porcupine Ant-eater (Echidna hystrix] 

 lived six hours ; and a common Tortoise, an animal which will 

 live a day with its head cut off, died in five hours after being 

 bitten." The H. superbus replaces it in Tasmania. 



The Cobras (Naja) are widely known, alike from the virulence 

 of their poison, and for their remarkable dilatable disk or 



