AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 
41 
South Wales. It frequents sandy localities, feeds on insects, small frogs, 
lizards, &c., and its bite causes no more irritation than the sting of a bee. 
Prom 15 to 20 eggs are deposited by it once a year, under stones exposed 
to the sun generally in the beginning of December, or perhaps earlier, as 
on more than one occasion young snakes were taken at the end of that 
month and in the beginning of January. This reptile is generally found 
from two to three feet in length. During the cold season the Grey Snake 
retires beneath flat stones exposed to the sun; it very seldom, if ever, goes 
into the ground; it is very sensitive to cold, and the least frost will 
destroy it. Some times five and more of them have been found under the 
same stone during the cold season. 
Muller’s Snake. Diemenia mulleri. 
Elaps mulleri, Sclileg. Ess., pi. 16, f. 16, 17 ; Mull., Z. Ind. Arch., t. 9. 
Pseudoelaps mulleri, Dum. Bibr., p. 1233. 
This species, which is described as “ olive, with two yellow or rose- 
colored streaks along the sides of head and neck,” is probably a young or 
half-grown D. reticulata , which frequently exhibit rose-colored streaks on 
head and neck. 
Brown Snake. Diemenia superciliosa. 
(Plate VII, adult; plate XI, figs. 10 and 10a, young.) 
Pseudoelaps superciliosus, Fischer, Abhandlg. im Gel), der Natur. Ill, part 107, 
taf. 2, fig. 8. 
Pseudoelaps sordellii, Jan, Rev. ei Mag. Zool ., pi. C. 
Pseudoelaps kubinyi, Jan, i.e. 
Diemenia annulata, Gthr., Cat. of Colub. Snakes , p. 218. 
Purina textilis, Krefft, Rroc. Zool. Soc., 1862, p. 149. 
Scales in 15 rows. 
Two anal plates. 
Abdominal plates, 228. 
Subcaudals, 73/73, or more. 
Total length, 5 to 6 feet. 
Head, 1^ inch. 
Tail, 10 inches. 
Body elongate and rounded ; head not very distinct from neck, high 
and quadrangular; superciliaries larger than the vertical; occipitals widely 
forked, rounded, broad; rostral high, reaching to the surface of crown; 
one nasal, one anterior, two posterior oculars ; superciliaries prominent 
above the eye; anterior ocular grooved near the top ; posterior frontals 
K 
