310 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



CORAL ELAPS (Elaps corallinus). 



not seem usually inclined to bite, and is insectivorous, eating also frogs ; but the Black Snake, the 

 most common Australian venomous Snake,* a lover of water and marshy places, has many of the 

 actions of a Cobra. Equally fatal is the bite of the Brown-banded Snake,t which frequents the 

 plains. The Death Adder, J with very variable colorisation, and loving warmth and sandy places, and 

 assuming the form of the letter S on being irritated, is a very fatal enemy. It has a large head, and 

 the tail ends in a short recurved spine. 



The Elapidce of the New World are usually beautiful Snakes. The Harlequin Snake (Elaps 

 pidvius), a small burrowing kind, and the Coral Elaps, from Rio and the Brazils and Central America, 

 are examples. 



FAMILY HYDROPHID^E. THE POISONOUS SEA SNAKES. 



The members of this family, all of which lead an aquatic life, may be recognised at once ly 

 their shape, and some peculiarities which relate to their method of life. The body is comparatively 

 flat at the sides, and the tail is decidedly so, and acts as a propeller and steerer, and the nostrils 

 open upwards and are closed with a valve, the tongue being short. They are all venomous, and 

 inhabit the sea, near land, salt-water estuaries, and tidal streams. They have a very wide range 

 of distribution, being found on the coasts of India, in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from Madagascar 

 to the Isthmus of Panama, in the Eastern Archipelago, and in the seas between Southern 

 China and North Australia. Some of them attain a considerable size. Giinther speaks of some 

 species attaining to the length of twelve feet. The longest seen by Sir J. Fayrer was under five 

 feet, there is no reason to believe that they attain to so great a size as certain fabulous stories 

 would suggest. 



They swim like fish, and live, with some exceptions, continually in the sea or tidal water. 

 When thrown on the land by the surf, as they constantly are at Pooree and other places along 

 * Pscudechis porphyriacia. t Hoplocephalus curtus. Acanthophis antarcticus. 



