ted Pouched Mice</i>, which, like the
English field-mice, are entirely terrestrial in their habits.
See <i>Pouched Mouse</i>. In Homer's' Iliad,' Bk. I. ver. 39,
<i>Smintheus</i> is an epithet of Apollo. It is explained as
"mouse-killer," from <i>sminthos</i>, a field-mouse, said to be
a Cretan word.

<hw>Smoke</hw>, v. (slang). See quotation.

1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' June 26, p. 8, col. 8:

"He said to the larrikins, `You have done for him now; you
have killed him.' `What!' said one of them, `do not say we were
here. Let us smoke.' `Smoke,' it may be explained, is the
slang for the `push' to get away as fast as possible."

<hw>Smooth Holly</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Holly</i>.

<hw>Snailey</hw>, <i>n</i>. bullock with horn slightly curled.

1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. ix. p. 68:

"Snaileys and poleys, old and young, coarse and fine, they
were a mixed herd in every sense."

1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 133:

"There's a snaily Wallanbah bullock I haven't seen this two
years."

<hw>Snake</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australian land snakes belong
principally to the four families, <i>Typhlopidae, Boidae</i>,
<i>Colubridae</i>, and <i>Elapidae</i>. The proportion of
venomous to non-venomous species increases from north to south,
the five species known in Tasmania being all venomous. The
smallest forms, such as the "blind" or "worm" snakes, are only
a few inches in length, while the largest Python may reach a
length of perhaps eighteen feet.

Various popular names have been given to different species
in different colonies, the same name being unfortunately not
infrequently applied to quite distinct species. The more
common forms are as follows:--

<i>Black Snake</i>.

Name applied in Australia to <i>Pseudechis porphyriacus</i>,
Shaw, which is more common in the warmer parts, and
comparatively rare in the south of Victoria, and not found
in Tasmania. In the latter the name is sometimes given to
dark-coloured varieties of <i>Hoplocephalus curtus</i>,
and in Victoria to those of <i>H. superbus</i>. The
characteristic colour is black or black-brown above and reddish
beneath, but it can be at once distinguished from specimens of
H. superbus, which not infrequently have this colour, by the
presence of a double series of plates at the hinder end, and
a single series at the anterior end of the tail, whereas in
the other species named there is only a single row alon