These are comprised under the one family, _Elapidæ_, all of which have an erect, immovable, grooved, or perforated fang in the fore-part of the maxillary bone. There is little in their external appearance to distinguish them from the harmless Colubrine Snakes, to which they are more nearly akin, in all but their poison-fangs, than they are to the Rattlesnakes and Vipers; yet some of the most poisonous of Ophidians appertain to this family, as exemplified by the well-known Cobras of the Indian region and of Africa, and also by some of the worst Snakes that inhabit Australia. In the colony of Victoria alone as many as ten species of Snakes are known, one only of which, _Morelia variegata_, is harmless; and one only of them, the formidable Death-adder (_Acanthopis antarctica_), belongs to the sub-order of the Viperine Snakes. The rest are included among the Colubriform Venemous Snakes, and most of the accidents from poisonous Snakes in that colony are due to what is there known as the Carpet Snake, _Hoplocephalus curtus_, while the Snake that bears the same name in the adjacent colony of New South Wales is the innocuous _Morelia spilotes_, which is a small Serpent of the family of _Pythonidæ_. Of the total number of Snakes known in all Australia, by far the greater number are Venemous, which is the reverse of what occurs elsewhere. Only about five species, however, are really dangerous throughout the great island-continent, for in many of them the poison is by no means virulent. Thus, of _Diemansia psammophis_, which sometimes exceeds four feet in length, Mr. Krefft remarks that "its bite does not cause any more irritation than the sting of a bee." Also, that "the bite of _Hoplocephalus variegatus_ is not sufficiently strong to endanger the life of a man. I have been wounded by it several times," writes Mr. Krefft, "and experienced no bad symptoms beyond a slight headache; the spot where the fang entered turning blue to about the size of a shilling for a few days." Again, of _Brachysoma diadema_, "this very handsome little Snake is Venemous, but never offers to bite, and may be handled with impunity." Far otherwise, however, is the venom of _Hoplocephalus curtus_, and also of some others. _H. curtus_ is one of the worst Snakes of Australia, where it inhabits the more temperate parts of the country from east to west. Its bite is almost as deadly as that of the Indian Cobra, to which it is, indeed, considerably allied. "A good-sized Dog bitten became paralyzed within three minutes, and was dead in fifty minutes afterwards; a Goat died in thirty-five minutes; a Porcupine Ant-eater (_Echidna hystrix_) lived six hours; and a common Tortoise, an animal which will live a day with its head cut off, died in five hours after being bitten." The _H. superbus_ replaces it in Tasmania.