except during the spring plowing. Asiatic coral snakes are eaten by cobras 
but seem to be immune from attack by the mongoose. 
AUSTRALIAN BLACK SNAKE 
The five-foot Australian black snake is a slender species, with neck ribs 
that form a hood about half as broad as that of the cobra. Its smooth scales 
are blue-black in back, while the underside is a bright red. Black snakes 
live in marshes, where they hunt frogs, rodents, birds and lizards. They are 
excellent swimmers. They bring forth living young, two dozen or so to the 
litter. 
Black snakes have survived for as long as seventeen years in captivity. 
However, they cannot tolerate the mites they sometimes catch from other 
snakes. Their poison is not very dangerous to man. Specimens caught by the 
head try to strike their captors with their tail, and often escape in the panic 
thus created. 
TIGER SNAKE 
The tiger snake of Australia and Tasmania is the most deadly snake of 
that region. Its name, however, arises not from its fierceness, but from its 
banded color design. Its venom is considered by some toxicologists to be 
the most virulent of all snake venoms but the tiger snake has a smaller 
supply than larger snakes. 
Tiger snakes are irritable and strike swiftly. Since some fifty of them 
are born in a litter, they are unpleasantly common. 
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