16 AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGY. 
Bennett, and named Casuarius bennettii. A living bird sent by him 
to England arrived at the Zoological Gardens in May, 1858. After 
a residence of two years this bird laid an egg, which was of a pale 
grass-green colour, closely freckled with paler colouring, its shape 
was more elongated and pyriform than that of the emu’s egg. Four 
of the nine species have two pendent neck-wattles; a fifth is 
characterised by possessing a single wattle, and the remaining four 
are destitute of any such appendage. 
BrOWN-BANDED SNAKE (Krefft, New South Wales), or Ticgkr 
SNAKE (McCoy, Victoria), or Carper Snake (Tas- 
mania).—Hoplocephalus curtis. 



Ergo quisquis id yulnus exsuxerit, et ipse tutus erit, et tutum hominem 
prestabit.—CELsus. 
Description.—A large tiger snake from the junction of the Murray 
and Darling measured four feet two inches, but three others were’ 
from three feet six inches to two feet eight inches, the tail being six 
inches. The body and tail are moderately thick and tapering. The 
head is subquadrate—that is, somewhat square—depressed, and 
rounded in front. Usually there are 19 rows of scales on the middle 
of the body. The colour varies from brownish-olive to light 
yellowish-brown above, with about 38 to 50 darker brown dusky 
undefined transverse bands, about two scales broad, with a rather 
narrower interval between them. As in all snakes, the colours are 
most vivid just after casting the skin ; before it, they are darker 
and the markings less distinct. The bands vary very much in dis- 
tinctness, and are often very obscure towards the head and tail ; in 
some specimens they are rendered very conspicuous by an extension 
of some of the yellowish colour of the belly on to two or three rows 
of the lateral scales, between the ends of the bands. ‘This species 
goes under the colonial name of tiger snake, from its tawny cross- 
banded colouring and its ferocity. The head is a dark olive bronze, 
the chin plates being freckled with bright blue; the throat and the 
belly vary from straw colour to yellow. The tail is conic. Ihe 
fangs are single or double. They are small, and situated in the 
upper jaw under the junction of the second and third labial plates. 
One or two (rarely four) smaller teeth are under the anterior part of 
the fourth labial plate. ‘The fangs are curved backwards, but when 
the snake bites, they are raised upright by reason of the mobility of 
the premaxillary bone. The iris is orange, the pupil seems circular 
and not elongate, as Schlegel states. It is the most dangerous of all 
Australian reptiles, and a fair bite from it will kill animals the size 
of a goat in about an hour. 
Habits.—The tiger snake is well known to frequently inflict 
bites rapidly fatal to menand dogs. It is extremely vicious in dis- 
position, reminding one strongly of its near ally—the cobra di capello 
of India—like which it flattens and extends the skin of the side of 
the neck laterally, when irritated, to twice its width when quiet ; 

