Reptiles. 



>O.J 



with respect to the nature and qualities of those objects which come so immediately 

 within the scope of their daily experience. Now, with respect to the deaf or death- 

 adder, they affirm unanimously that its head and its tail are alike deadly, and they 

 always exhibit a greater horror of its fatal powers than of any other venomous reptile. 

 I once had an opportunity of almost verifying this asserted fact of the poisonous sting 

 of the deaf-adder. I was travelling up the- bush to Port Curtis with some bullock- 

 drivers and their drays, and also with a small party of blacks, men, women and 

 children, who had joined us for the sake of protection against the native tribes through 

 whose country we were passing. We stopped and had some tea on the shingle in the 

 dry bed of the river Boyne, when, as I was drinking mine, hearing a woman knocking 

 two stones together (and feeling sure it was not Geology she was studying), I asked 

 her what she was doing; she showed me the tip of a deaf-adder's tail which she had 

 chopped off with a sharp flint, before cooking the body to eat. I asked her why she 

 did it, and she said, " The tail of this fellow snake is carbon saucy (very poisonous), 

 as bad as the head itself." I thought at first it could be but a fancy of the blacks, 

 yet, upon consideration, I felt sure that they were not likely to be so greatly mistaken 

 on such a subject, living amongst and feeding upon almost all the wild animals of the 

 bush, as they do, from the time they are born till their death. I mentioned the names 

 of other venomous snakes to her, as the black snake, the brown snake and whip snake, 

 and asked her if they also had a " saucy fellow moondy (tail);" upon which, shaking 

 her head, she uttered " Wacka-m-pa " (" no, no," or, " no indeed"), and rather smiled, 

 as if she thought me a bit of a "' new chum." She went, and, getting the bit of tail 

 she had cut off on to a flat slone (not liking to touch it with her fingers even in its 

 dissevered state), she brought it to me, and squeezing it between the stones, just as 

 you might press the abdomen of a wasp, something not unlike a short bristle pro- 

 truded from the pointed end, pointing to which she said, " There, that fellow killem 

 you merry-makey (very soon)." I now regret I did not preserve the tail and bring it 

 home, but having other things to attend to at the time I thought no more about it 

 till some years after, when, on my return to England, I happened to mention the 

 subject to my father-in-law, Mr. Dawson, of the Woodlands, who advised me to write 

 a short account of it for the • Zoologist.' — H. M. Fuller ; Niton, Isle of Wight. 



Crocodiles in the Nouaer Country, White Nile, 

 By John Petherick, Esq.* 



Our boat was made fast under the village of Subchaya, and not far 

 from it was the house of our conductor, Saleh Wallad Omar Abt il 

 Samad — according to his own account a keen sportsman, who, dis- 

 daining agricultural pursuits, supported himself and family by the 

 produce of his gun and spear. Six years ago, in company with three 

 of his fellow villagers, he went to a small island called Geizet-il-Arab— 

 a choice resort of crocodiles in search of their eggs. Going the round 



* Reprinted from the ' Field ' newspaper. 

 VOL. XXI. 3 X 



