148 Prof. F. M‘Coy on the Ancient and Recent 
less country, of habitually living buried to a considerable depth 
in the sandy ground during the day, coming up to feed by mght, 
when in their turn they furnish food to the snakes on the dry 
plains. The Chelonian reptiles are not found nearer than the 
River Murray, where the only species known, Chelodina longi- 
collis and C. oblonga, are those described by my friend Dr. J. BE. 
Gray, of the British Museum, to whom our National Museum is 
so greatly indebted for the most valuable and friendly aid. The 
Snakes of the colony are rather numerous, and all, with one ex- 
‘ception, poisonous ; and that exception—the Carpet-Snake (M/o- 
relia variegata)—is only found in the warmer northern part of the 
colony. On the other hand, the venomous Snakes, properly so 
called, with isolated fangs, are scarcely found, the only example 
of Australian Viperide being the Death or Deaf Adder of colo- 
nists, the Acanthophis antarctica being extremely rare in Victoria, 
and only found in the warm districts near the northern bound- 
ary. The rest of the Snakes belong to the Colubride ; and as the 
Snakes of Victoria have not yet been enumerated, I may just 
mention those I have ascertamed. The Hoplocephalus superbus 
is a very abundant snake near Melbourne, and this poisonous 
snake is often unfortunately referred to erroneously under the 
name of “ Diamond Snake” in accounts of experiments on the 
bites of poisonous Snakes and antidotes,—the true, harmless 
Diamond Snake (Morelia spilotes) of New South Wales not 
having as yet been observed in the colony of Victoria. The 
Hoplocephalus curtus is a still more abundant and venomous 
species around Melbourne, where it is usually called “ Tiger 
Snake” from the brown transverse banding of most specimens ; 
it differs remarkably from all the others of the genus in its power 
of dilating the sides of the neck, when irritated, into a broad, flat, 
leaf-like hood as in the Cobra. These two species become more 
rare towards the north, not having been observed in the warmer 
regions. Hoplocephalus Gouldi is extremely rare, | having only 
seen one Victorian specimen, it being here replaced by the only 
new species I have met with, namely, the Hoplocephalus flagellum 
(M‘Coy), the common Iittle ‘‘ Whip Snake” of the colonists, 
having 19 and 17 rows of scales as constantly as its representa- 
tive in W. Australiahas 15. The beautiful little H. coronoides of 
Tasmania also occurs in Victoria, but is rare. Of Diemansia we 
have only one species, the D. reticulata, one of the commonest of 
the small snakes towards the Murray boundary of the colony, but 
not found in the cooler localities towards the southern coast. 
The beautiful “ Black Snake” of the colonists (Pseudechys por- 
phyraicus) is a formidable and very poisonous species, but has 
become very rare of late years in Victoria. The most dangerous 
of all the snakes of the colony, both from its size (usually about. 
