PEEFACE. 



in the country will thus have the means of accurately identifying 

 various natural objects, their observations on which, if recorded and 

 sent to the National Museum, where the originals of all the figures 

 and descriptions are preserved, will be duly acknowledged, and 

 will materially help in the preparation of the final systematic volume 

 to be published for each class when it approaches completion. 



This second Decade gives figures and descriptions in the first plate 

 of two species of poisonous snakes too small to be dangerous to 

 human life, but often causing needless alarm from being mistaken 

 for the young of larger sorts. The second plate shows the famous 

 Death Adder, reputed the most deadly for its size of all our poisonous 

 snakes, and remarkable for the stinglike spine at the end of its 

 tail, which is popularly mistaken for its dangerous wounding part. 

 The third plate represents the largest of our Victorian serpents, the 

 great Carpet Snake, sometimes eight to ten feet long, but, like the 

 nearly related Boas of America and the Kock Snakes of Asia and 

 Africa, perfectly harmless as far as the bite is concerned, as there 

 are no poison fangs. The fourth plate represents for the first 

 time the Gippsland Perch, now common in the markets. The fifth 

 gives the large Murray Crayfish, or Lobster, as it is popularly called. 

 The sixth and seventh plates illustrate the different forms and colors 

 peculiar to the different stages of growth of the Arripis, popularly 

 mis-called Salmon and Salmon Trout by the fishermen ; to which so 

 many cases of fish-poisoning have given a special interest, as well 

 as its size, abundance, and general wholesomeness for food. The 

 eighth plate gives proof of the identity of our Horse Mackerel with 

 that of Europe and America. The ninth and tenth plates represent 

 for the first time two species of the food fishes popularly called 

 Eock Cod. 



An unusual proportion of this Decade has been devoted to our 

 fishes at the request of the Inspector of Fisheries, whose functions 

 cannot be efficiently carried out in a new country without some 



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