Ill 



THE LAKE DISTRICT 



89 



It seemed to me that snakes were very abun- 

 dant in Tasmania ; as the summer drew on 

 I hardly made an expedition into the bush with- 

 out coming across one or other of the three species. 

 Despite the innumerable names given by people 

 in the Tasmanian bush to snakes, there are only 

 three true species, all of them being highly veno- 

 mous, and two of them deadly in effect, unless 



6 C 



Head-scales of Tasmanian Snakes. 



A. Black Snake (Hoplocephalus curtus). 



B. Diamond Snake {Denisonia superba). 



C. Whip Snake {Denisonia coronoides). 



stringent remedies are immediately applied. The 

 two deadly kinds are firstly the Black, Tiger, or 

 Carpet Snake (for it goes under all these names 

 according to whether it is black, banded with 

 yellow, or more irregularly blotched), Hoploce- 

 phalus curtus ; this snake is by far the commonest, 

 and may be distinguished by the central scale on 

 the head being of a blunt truncated shape with 

 straight sides (Fig. 21, A), and by the shortness 

 of the tail behind the vent : secondly, the Dia- 

 mond Snake (Denisonia superba), which may vary 

 from black to sandy colour, but is sharply dis- 



