DEATH ADDER. Any of .evera I deadly ela pine, .1u.tra la .ia n viviparous snake., cially the spine-tailed leanthophis anta•eticus, V. !dell is distributed from South Aus tralia to the _Nloluccas, and resembles in form and color an American rattlesnake. The end of the tail "is laterally compressed, beset with a few rows of imbricating scales. and ter minates in a thin. horny spine." Dr. Gad ow thinks the use of this peculiar tail "very prob ably consists in attracting or fixing the attention of small animals: the snake. lying coiled up on a dry and sandy spot. slightly raising and vi brating the tip of the tail." It feeds mainly on frogs and young birds. species greatly feared is the larger and more cylindrical purplish adder (Pscudechis porphyriaccus), or 'black snake,' which may reach seven feet in length, and is purplish-black, varying in different speci mens to dark olive-brown, with earmine sides and red belly, specked with black. A third species, especially dangerous, although smaller,. because of its resemblance to the harmless serpents, is the short death adder (Ilolocephalus curt is), also known as the broad-headed, tiger, or brown banded snake. It. is very variable, but the head,
which has a peculiarly square outline, is "gen erally uniform black, the body olive color, with broad brown or black cross-hands, the hinder part of the body . . . blackish, and the whole of the under parts light-yellow." Its venom is immediately fatal to animals generally, lint seems not to he so to itself or other poisonous snakes. Thirty or more young, are brought forth annually by a single pair. and the species is common every where on the Continent. It buries itself in the ground during the cold season. The genus llolo eephalus has several other in Australasia and the south seas. One of these, the large-sealed Illolorephalus superbus). is the dreaded dia mond snake of Tasmania: another is the smaller, broad-headed snake ( llolocephalus rariegatus) of the neighborhood of Sydney: a third (i/o/o ccp)m/us nigresccnsi, of the southeastern coast of Australia, is remarkable for its white tongue. Consult Kreft, Snakes of _4 ust ralia ( Sydney, 180 ) .