Black Snake, Pseudechys porphyriacus
Plate 1. Black Snake, Pseudechys porphyriacus (now known as Red-bellied Black Snake, Pseudechis porphyriacus) caught at Studley Park
This is the most beautiful of all the Victorian snakes, and one of the most deadly in effects of its bite. It is, however, fortunately much rarer in Victoria than in the warmer more northern colonies of Australia; and although not uncommon near the northern Murray boundary if is seldom found in the cooler southern districts, and is not known at all in Tasmania. The only locality near Melbourne where it is not very uncommon is Studley Park, where in the bend of the Yarra the specimen here figured and some others I have seen were killed.
Like the other genera of the family Elapidœ, the poison-fang in Pseudechys is grooved in the front face for the duct of the poison gland, which opens near the point, and, as in the family generally, there are a few small harmless solid teeth behind the fang in the upper jaw, besides two rows on the palate, and the usual row of small hooked solid teeth on the lower jaws.
Some fatal cases of snake-bite in man from this species are known, and a large-sized dog will usually die in an hour from the effects of its bite.