AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGY, 
Venomous SNAKES OF AUSTRALASIA. 
Names and outlines of the five most deadly :— 
TIGER SNAKF (McCoy, Victoria), or BROWN-BANDED SNAKE (Krefft, 
New South Wales), or Carrer Snakr (Tasmania)—Hoplo- 
cephalus curtus. Length from 4 to 5 feet. Brown above, banded 
with darker ; yellow below. Tail-scales in one row. 
BLACK SNAKE—Pseudechys porphyriacus. Length, about 6 feet. 
Slate colour above; pink below. ‘Tail-scales in two rows at 
base, thence one row. 
Brown sNAKE—Diemenia superciliosa. Length, about 5 to 6 feet. 
Brown above ; pale below. ‘Tail-scales in two rows. 
DratH ADDER—Acanthophis antarctica. Length, from 2 to nearly 
3 feet. Brown above, banded with darker, paler below. Tail- 
scales in one row, a thorn at the end. 
CopPrER-HEAD SNAKE (McCoy, Victoria), or LARGE-SCALED SNAKE 
(Krefft, New South Wales), or DiAMoNnD sNAKE (Tasmania)— 
Hoplocephalus superbus.—Length, about 4 feet. Olive-brown 
above. head darker, side-scales reddish ; greyish below. Tail- 
scales in one row. (Proressor McCoy, Vicrorta.) 
The above characteristics constitute the key of identification, a 
rudimentary knowledge of which is sometimes serviceable. Professor 
Halford (Melbourne), writes: ‘* A gentleman residing in South 
Yarra rang me up at about midnight in May, 1868/~He told me he 
had been bitten by a snake, that he did not want my advice, that he 
only wished to know if it was a poisonous snake or not. With that 
he opened a parcel and let the snake, which had been cut in halves, 
fall upon the carpet. The fall made it, although dead, wriggle 
about a little. He became sick. I saw the punctures on his arm, 
examined the head of the snake, and found it to be that of a 
vigorous tigersnake. I felt sure he would die, which he did, twelve 
hours after the bite.” The Professor and Dr. Wooldridge attended 
him to the end. These five ophidians are the most dangerous, and 
they are common reptiles, the tiger snake being especially so in 
Victoria but uncommon in Queensland ; it is too the only aggressive 
one. What is called the black snake in Tasmania is a dark variety 
of the brown-banded snake, identical with Hoplocephalus fuscus. 
Number and danger.—Unlike all other countries, the venomous 
snakes are much more numerous than the harmless ; of 108 species 
known to inhabit Australasia, only 35 species are innocuous. No 
other country possesses 73 species of poisonous reptiles (Sir W. 
Macleay, Pro. Linnean S. N.S.W.) In India, which is looked upon 
as the home of venomous serpents, there is nothing like the same 
number. Dr. Gunther in the ‘‘ Reptiles of British India” gives 18 
species as the number of the venomous colubrine snakes, and 19 as 
that of the viperine, or 37 in all; whereas in Australia, when the 
sea snakes are deducted, there are 58 species. In America, too, 
also famed for its numerous reptiles, the numbers are few in com- 
parison with Australia. In that vast continent, there are scarcely more 
