clusively confined to Australia, but if Mr. Woods[1] is correct in saying that they are only found in the hottest parts of the earth, his assertion confirms our experience of the extreme heat of a Western Australian summer in latitude 32° south.
I cannot dismiss this subject without relating an anecdote not quite irrelevant to the familiar name of these animated twigs. We had been sitting one evening at twilight in the verandah of a lady whose caution with regard to reptiles verged somewhat on excess. We had wished her good night and returned towards our own home when, shortly after our departure, she became aware that a snake was hanging by its under jaw upon the outer ledge of her casement, and curiously peering through the window into the room where she sat. With a steady voice, and her eyes fixed upon the foe, she called her maid and bade her run to the nearest cottage to request the first man that could be found to lose no time in coming to kill the snake, over which she herself would undertake to keep watch.
The maid, well pleased to get out of harm's way, flew off on her errand, leaving her mistress to mesmerize the serpent by the fixity of her gaze; which she did with such effect that, beyond a slight pendulous movement, it never so much as winked or stirred during her solitary vigil. At length the girl returned, accompanied by our own day-labourer, and a consultation as to the best method of destroying the venomous beast was held. As it was evident that the snake could not be done to death in the
- ↑ 'Illustrated Natural History,' vol. iii., p. 485. Rev. J. G. Woods. Routledge, &c.
