86 
AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 
developed in Enliydrina. There is generally a small notch on each side of 
the lobule, for the passage of the two points of the tongue. Cantor says 
that when the snake is out of the water and blinded by the light, it freely 
makes use of its tongue as a feeler. 
“ The food of the Sea Snakes consists entirely of small fish; I have 
found all kinds of fish in their stomach—among them species with very 
strong spines (. Apogon , Siluroids ). As all these animals are killed by the 
poison of the snake before they are swallowed, and as their muscles are 
perfectly relaxed, their armature is harmless to the snake, which com¬ 
mences to swallow its prey from the head, and depresses the spine as 
deglutition proceeds. 
“ There cannot be the slightest doubt that the Sea Snakes belong to 
the most poisonous species of the whole order. Russell and Cantor have 
ascertained it by direct observation; tortoises, other snakes, and fish, died 
from their bite in less than an horn’, and a man succumbed after 
four hours. Accidents are rarely caused by them, because they are 
extremely shy, and swim away on the least alarm; but when surprised in 
the submarine cavities forming their natural retreats, they null, like any 
other poisonous terrestrial snake, dart at a pole ; or, when out of the water, 
they attempt to bite every object near them, even turning round to wound 
their own bodies. (Cantor.) They cannot endure captivity, dying in the 
course of two or three days, even when kept in capacious tanks. 
“ The males may be easily distinguished from the females by a distinct 
swelling on each side of the tail extending from the root to, or beyond, the 
middle of its length; sometimes the whole tail is thickened, and such 
specimens may be taken for distinct species. All the species are vivi¬ 
parous, bringing forth, without leaving the sea, from four to nine young 
ones. The young are more brightly colored than the adult, the faint cross 
bands of the latter being complete black rings in the former; the tail also 
of the young is comparatively thicker, and less compressed than in the 
adult. That they live to a great age I infer from the circumstance that 
we find relatively very large examples of almost every species, but that 
such examples are very scarce. Now as they have very formidable and 
very numerous enemies in the sea eagles (Ilaliaclus), in the sharks, and 
other raptatorial fishes, it appears to me to be a just conclusion that, if 
