The Victorian naturalist . iver, some 8 km west of Beenleigh, on the Mt. Tamborine road. The twosnakes were first observed throughbinoculars from a distance of approxi-mately 400 m and the initial impres-sion gained was of a pair of large,long-necked birds (possibly cormor-ants) engaged in a complicated court-ship dance. Closer examination of thepair showed that the bodies of thebirds were in fact the posterior half-third of each snake closely entwined,and that the necks were very long,sometimes up to m out of thewater at any one time. How long theritual had been in progress is un-known bu
The Victorian naturalist . iver, some 8 km west of Beenleigh, on the Mt. Tamborine road. The twosnakes were first observed throughbinoculars from a distance of approxi-mately 400 m and the initial impres-sion gained was of a pair of large,long-necked birds (possibly cormor-ants) engaged in a complicated court-ship dance. Closer examination of thepair showed that the bodies of thebirds were in fact the posterior half-third of each snake closely entwined,and that the necks were very long,sometimes up to m out of thewater at any one time. How long theritual had been in progress is un-known but it was observed for aboutan hour close to dusk. During thistime the snakes remained close to oneposition in the shallow water with thelower parts of their bodies closely en-twined. The remainder of the bodieswas free and the ritual involved con-stant writhing, faUing back, entwin-ing, releasing of the anterior portionsof the bodies. No hissing or biting was *Queensland Museum. Plate 1 Morelia spilotesvariegator 252 Vict. Nat. Vol. 92 observed. Often the entwined orparallel necks were between mout of the water before falling backto start the same movement overagain. The snakes were undaunted bya group of about a dozen quiet butvery interested and closely placedobservers. One position adopted in thecombat is shown in Plate 1. When anattempt was made to approach thesnakes with the intention of deter-mining their sex they moved awayslightly and were carried downstreamwith the current, still entwinedtogether. Although the sexes were not ex-amined; in the Hght of Bakers (1968)observation that . . Copulation in allsnakes would appear to be a ratherpassive affair with the female lyingquietly uncoiled and with the malesliding alongside and observations ofcopulation in captivity of many speciesof snakes, it seems reasonable to as-sume that this relentless writhing, en-twining, relaxing was a case of com-bat rather than copulation or pre-copulation behaviour. Baker (1
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