46 AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGY. 
LArGe-scALED SNAKE (Krefit, New South Wales), Copprr- 
HEAD SNAKE (McCoy, Victoria), DiAmMonD SNAKE (Tas- 
mania)—Hoplocephalus superbus. 
Name.—The late G. Krefft describes this reptile under the 
designation, the large-scaled snake, but he also speaks of it as the 
broad-scaled snake. In Victoria it is known as the copper-head 
snake, ‘The popular name ‘‘copper-head ” was adopted in Victoria 
from a well-known vendor of a puppet antidote for snakebite, 
named Underwood. ‘This man used to go about the streets with 
several specimens of this species in the bosom of his shirt, protruding 
now and then around his neck. The writer remembers seeing him 
once in the back yard of the Victoria Hotel, Geelong, in 1860. He 
had a litt’e knot of spectators before him. His right arm which 
was bared and upraised had a snake entwined round it like a son of 
Laocoon experienced; there was another snake round his neck. 
His arm had been bitten, and he was dashing his antidote upon the 
punctures froma black bottle with his left hand. People always 
doubted, and pondered thus: Was the snake venomous? Had its 
fangs been broken out? Was the antidote efficacious? One day 
Underwood was induced to cause one of another species—a tiger 
snake—to bite him to show the value of his antidote. ‘The snake- 
charmer was dead within an hour. Whatever power his nostrum 
may have had against the venom of his favourite copper-head, it 
was powerless against the deadly virus of the tiger snake. 
Description —The length of the copper-head snake varies from 
two feet five inches to three feet eight inches. The tail is from four 
and a quarter to six and a half inches. The gape is about one inch. 
The body and tail are moderately thick, and gradually taper. The 
head is subquadrate, depressed, and rounded in front. he scales 
are large. ‘The vertex plate is hexagonal ; this is between the eyes; 
it is about twice as long as broad, There are 15 rows of dorsal 
scales across the middle of the back. There are from 147 to 157 
ventral plates. The sub-caudal plates are from 41 to about 50. 
The colour of the back varies from dark copper-brown to light 
reddish-brown or nearly black. The tip of each scale is blackish. 
The top of the head is of a dark-copper blackish-bronze with two 
’ diverging darker extensions forming a V-shaped black patch on the 
neck. The scales on each side have a white patch on the anterior 
half of each, the tip being blackish. The aaG ERIS is a very pale 
yellowish-olive in front, becoming dark grey or blackish on the 
middle of the tail. The colour of the head is like that of an old 
copper coin. The blackish examples are frequently mistaken for the 
black snake, but the scales on the underside of the tail being in only 
a single row, and there being one instead of two nasal plates, easily 
distinguish them, 
