Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/238

 The Whip snake.—This is the only arboreal or tree-snake, that I am acquainted with in the colony. It is a handsome, agile reptile, extremely long in comparison to its size, and derives its name from its resemblance to a large whip. It is of a greenish colour, with yellow underneath.

The Ring snake.—A small species, marked by alternate black and white rings.

The Death Adder.—This hideous reptile is of a dusky hue, seldom more than two feet and a half long, but immensely thick in proportion to its length. At the extremity of its tail is a small pointed, hardened process, with which the sawyers and labourers fancy that it can inflict a sting like a scorpion. The Death Adder, perhaps, possesses the most intense venom of any Australian serpent, for many persons have, at various periods, died in consequence of its bite, which is most rapidly fatal. Dogs expire in a very few minutes after they are bitten. Another smaller kind of snake, of a brown colour, would however appear to be nearly as bad as the Death Adder, for since I have been in the colony, a man at the Williams river was bitten by a snake of this description, and died in a quarter of an hour. This snake was under a plank which the man was removing, and so slight was the bite inflicted by its fangs, that the man did not know at first that he was bitten, and remarked to his comrade, that he had a narrow escape. The Death Adder is extremely sluggish in its habits, and rarely