# Brown snake with black head??



## dpayne (Jun 1, 2014)

Hi - I recently come across this snake and originally thought it was a copperhead but now I'm not so sure. It was approx 25cm long and in the Rylstone area of NSW.
I've heard baby brown snakes can sometimes have a black head as well.
Can anyone tell me what it was?


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## jase75 (Jun 1, 2014)

Parasuta Dwyeri, Dwyers Snake, the body shape and shape of the head are different to baby browns. They are mildly venomous and usually cause no worse than a bee sting.

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## dpayne (Jun 2, 2014)

jase75 said:


> Parasuta Dwyeri, Dwyers Snake, the body shape and shape of the head are different to baby browns. They are mildly venomous and usually cause no worse than a bee sting.
> 
> Sent from my XT925 using Tapatalk



thanks for that!!


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## Bushman (Jun 3, 2014)

I agree with Jase's ID on this, although more correctly it's _Parasuta spectabilis dwyeri_. 

The small eyes of this specimen and lack of a black nuchal patch effectively eliminate the Eastern Brown Snake (the young of which also tend to be banded in this area). 
Highland Copperheads tend to be darker and small ones have a vertebral stripe. Copperheads also have relatively large eyes, especially on small/young ones such as this.


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