46 
AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 
Black Snake. Pseudechis porphyriacus. 
(Plate YIII and plate XI, fig. 8.) 
Coluber porphyriacus, SJiaw, Zool. of N. H., p. 27, pi. 10; and Shaw, General Zool, III, 
p. 423, pi. 110. 
Pseudechis porphyriacus, Wafer, Syst. Amph., p. 171, and Gunther, Cat. of Col. Snakes 
in Col. B. M., p, 218. 
ISTaja porphyriaca, Schley., Bss., pi. 17, figs. 10, 11. 
Naja australis, Gray, Zool. Misc., p. 55. 
Scales in 17 rows. 
Two anal plates. 
Abdominals, 180 to 200. 
Subcaudals variable, from 50 to 60, sometimes all divided 
or all entire, generally the first 10 to 20 entire, and 
the remainder divided. 
Total length of adult, 5 to 6 feet. 
Head, 1 inch. 
Tail, 6 inches. 
Body elongate and rounded; tail moderate, not distinct from trunk; 
head rather small, quadrangular, with rounded muzzle ; shields of crown 
regular; two nasals, no loreal; one anterior and two posterior oculars; 
scales smooth, imbricate, in seventeen rows; anal bifid; first subcaudals 
entire, hinder ones two-rowed; in some individuals all the subcaudals are 
entire. Black above, each scale of the outer series red at the base and 
black at the tip; ventral shields with black posterior margins; muzzle 
light brown. 
The Black Snake is the most common of all our venomous snakes; 
it frequents low marshy places, is fond of water, dives and swims well, and 
subsists principally upon frogs, lizards, insects, and the smaller mammalia, 
in particular the young of the Water-rat, PLydromys leucogaster. On one 
occasion sixteen young of this rodent were taken out of a specimen, so 
that the reptile must have plundered four nests. 
When irritated, the Black Snake raises about two feet of its body off 
the ground, flattens out the neck like a Cobra, and then darts at its prey 
or enemy. The bite of this snake is highly venomous, killing good-sized 
dogs or goats within an hour. 
The number of young brought forth in March generally amounts 
to 15 or 20. During the winter the reptile retires into the ground. 
