AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 
43 
The geographical range of this species extends over almost every 
part of Australia, and the collection embraces specimens from Cape York, 
Adelaide, the Murray, and other localities. When full grown, this snake 
is dangerous to man; it is diurnal, and inhabits rocky localities ; young 
individuals are frequently found under stones during the cold season, 
while those of a more mature age retire into the ground. 
Percy Island Snake. Diemenia torqucita. 
(Plate XII, figs. 11 and 11a.) 
Diemenia torquata. Gntlir ., Annand Mag. of Mat. Hist., Ser. 3, vol. IX. p. 130. 
Scales in 15 rows. 
Abdominal plates, 206. 
Two anal plates. 
Subcaudals, 84/84. 
Total length, 22 inches 7 lines. 
Head, 7 lines. 
Tail, 6 inches. 
The following description is given by Dr. Gunther:— 
Scales in fifteen rows, smooth. Brownish olive, each scale with a 
short white line at the basal portion of its outer margin; skin between the 
scales black; a brownish-black streak, edged with yellow, across the 
rostral shield and the loreal region, extending to the orbit. Posterior 
oculars yellow ; a yellow streak edged with black from the eye to the 
angle of the mouth, continued into another similar band across the neck; 
another yellowish cross-band at some distance behind the former; the 
space between the two cross-bands dark brown, the whole forming a collar. 
Chin yellowish, marbled with grey; belly shining grey, a blackish band 
along the middle of the anterior half of the belly; tail reddish olive 
posteriorly. 
Head flat; loreal replaced by the conjunction of four shields, as in 
the typical species; six upper labials, the third and fourth entering the 
orbit; two anterior temporals, the upper in contact with the lower post¬ 
ocular, the lover intercalated between the fifth and sixth labials. Scales 
without groove at the apex. 
This snake is from Percy Island, which lies off the north-east coast 
of Australia, near Broad Sound. 
