SNAKE DOES NOT WINK

Evening Star, Issue 19788, 11 February 1928, Page 12

SNAKE DOES NOT WINK

WAYS OF REPTILES Snakes cannot wink. So it may be taken for granted Dial before one of them lias ejected bis fatal venom into a human being lie has not added insult to injury by playfully contracting the eyelid in tho direction ol a reptile companion. He has no eyelids. This will be one of the facts that the Eodcral Government expert shortly to be appointed lo inquire into the dcatli rate from snake, bile and suggest remedies for its reduction will have proved to him anew. Even compared with India and South Africa, Australia has more than its share of venomous reptiles. Taken in the order in which they are most to be feared, they include;— The death adder, sometimes erroneously called the deaf adder. The superb snake, common to Victoria, where it is known as the copperhead. The tiger snake,. The black snake. The brown snake. Uf (Lose the death adder is must to he feared, both from the quantity of venom it injects and its virulence. It is sluggish in its movements, and is frequently met with in the open, which is all that may be said in its favor. ALMOST AS DEADLY.

Tho brown, black, and tiger varieties are almost as deadly, both as to quantity and virulence of the venom. How to determine whether a snake is venomous or not has been the cause ol many a heated argument. Some old buslimcn claim to bo able ( o identify the poisonous reptile by the width of its head. Others claim that when the line of the mouth is curved it denotes tho venomous snake, the straight line of mouth denoting the harmless variety. It is not a good rule to follow any more, than fo follow the Scotch settlor’s advice. “ Wait a wee hit,” he said to an employee who landed he had been hitten, “an’ if ye dee it’s a bad snake; if ye don’t it’s harmless.” The fact that he had examined the wound and discovered the. double row six punctures (the hall-mark of the harmless snake) helped his humor, but not the patient. In Central Queensland there is another- playful reptile called the ring snake which “ is very violent, but incapable of harming man.” Cases are on record where fright has killed when ono of these lias attacked a person. “In all the world,” said an expert, “ there are only two varieties "of a deadly lizard. Fortunately they have missed Australia. “Where deaths from lizard biles have occurred in Australia it has usually been from, blond poisoning caused by the attacker’s dirty teeth.” •