226 
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 (Acantliopis antarcticus), 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 well 
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- 
S6cl~SllcLkGS ^ ** 
family ( Hydrophiincje) 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 young. 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 
