202 FAUNA OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA 



quite a common sight to see a native with his dingo in his 

 arms, caressing it and talking to it as a mother might to a 

 young child — to all which kindness the animal is quite 

 oblivious. 



The animal is spread over the entire continent of 

 Australia, the islands excepted, on none of which it is 

 found unless introduced by human agency. It has been 

 practically exterminated in the thickly settled parts of the 

 country and in some localities where its many depreda- 

 tions have provoked determined reprisals. 



There are at least seven species of snakes in the Swan 

 River and Champion Bay districts, of which, unfortunately, 

 I can specifically name but two or three, as no specimens 

 were brought away. Several of these are exceedingly 

 poisonous, particularly the black-snake and the whip- 

 snake, which are well known to all Australians; but 

 accidents to men and cattle do not seem to be frequent, 

 and there is no such disastrous loss of life from the bites of 

 these venomous creatures as we hear annually occur in 

 India. I have rarely heard of the death of a native from 

 snake-bite, and still more rarely of that of a white man 

 from the like cause. 



Two of these snakes are species of python, one of them 

 seeming to be a variety of diamond-snake {Python spilotis), 

 but dark coloured and much marked, like the kind still 

 called the carpet-snake by the colonists of the other side of 

 the continent. It is called Biggemoodo by the blacks, the 

 g's having a soft sound. Waggil is the native name for 

 a snake ; but I am not sure whether this is a general or a 

 specific name. I collected the names of several, but 

 cannot remember the particular snakes to which some of 

 them are applied. The blacks eat them all, and they have 

 no fear of any of them, though the diamond-snake is five 

 feet long, very active, and disposed to be aggressive when 

 disturbed. The usual method of capture is to set fire to a 

 patch of bush, and slay the affrighted snakes and other 

 animals as they wriggle forth from the approaching smoke 

 and fire. Sometimes, maddened by fright and pain, the 

 venomous snakes leap quickly from the ground and attack 



