22 6 SNAKES. 



snake, this reptile is dreaded alike by natives and Europeans, although, fortunately, 

 it nearly always endeavours to escape when discovered. The short death-adder 

 (Hoplicephalus curtus), represented in the upper figure of the illustration 

 on p. 225, is selected as a well-known example of a second Australian genus, 

 which includes a large number of species. Closely resembling the harmless snakes 

 in general appearance, these death-adders are distinguished from the other members 

 of this group by the presence in the upper jaw of a row of small, curved, solid 

 teeth behind the fangs. The head is unsymmetrically four-sided, flattened, and 

 rounded at the muzzle, the body massive, and the tail either moderate or short. 

 The smooth and equal-sized scales are arranged in from fifteen to twenty-one rows, 

 those on the middle of the back not being larger than the rest ; and there is but 

 a single row of shields on the under surface of the tail. All these species are 

 peculiar in the group for producing living young, The figured species, which 

 varies from 3 to 4 feet in length, has a short tail, and nineteen rows of scales. 

 Although very variable as regards coloration, the head is generally uniform black, 

 the body olive-colour, with broad brown or black crossbands, the hinder-part of 

 the body and the upper surface of the tail uniformly blackish, and the whole 

 of the under-parts light yellow. Some specimens have, however, no dark bands 

 on the back. The spine-tailed death-adder (Acanthopis antarctic us), depicted in 

 the lower figure of the illustration, represents a genus easily recognised by the 

 horny appendage with which the tail terminates ; the middle row of scales in 

 the fore-part of the body being more or less distinctly keeled. In addition to 

 Australia and New Guinea, this snake also inhabits the Eastern Moluccas, as we'll 

 as Ceram and Amboyna. It feeds chiefly upon frogs and young birds and is 

 regarded by Europeans as most deadly, although the natives believe that no one 

 ever dies from a death-adder's bite. 



The sea-snakes are now considered to represent merely a sub- 

 family (Hydrophiinoe) of the front-fanged Colubrines. From the 

 preceding subfamily they are distinguished, not only by their marine habits, 

 but likewise by their strongly compressed and oar-shaped tails, in the skeleton of 

 which both the superior and inferior spines of the vertebrae are very strongly 

 developed. With the exception of the broad-tailed sea-snakes, which form a kind 

 of transition between the present and preceding subfamilies, these snakes never 

 leave the water ; and the inferior surface of the body and tail is either covered 

 with scales similar to those on the upper-parts, or, if shields are present, they are 

 of small size. All are very poisonous, and produce living 3-oung. Their head- 

 quarters are the coasts of the Indian Ocean and the tropical districts of the 

 Western Pacific, their range extending from the Persian Gulf to New Guinea 

 and Northern Australia. The parti-coloured sea-snake has, however, a more 

 extensive distribution, ranging from the western coast of Africa to the western 

 shores of Tropical America, and extending as far north as Japan and Mantchuria, 

 and as far south as New Zealand. All of them have relatively small heads, jaws, 

 and fangs ; and while in some cases the body is short and thick, in others it is very 

 thick only in the region of the tail, and elsewhere disproportionately elongated 

 and attenuated. Always varied, the coloration is often brilliant and beautiful ; 

 and the oar-like form of the tail and hinder-part of the body is obviously an 



