Inland taipan taipan's long pointed tail. The specific name, "microlepidotus", means "small-scaled" (Latin). Hence the common name, small-scaled snake. Since it has been determined (Covacevich et al., 1981) that the fierce snake (formerly: "Parademansia microlepidota") is actually part of the genus "Oxyuranus" (taipan), another species, "Oxyuranus scutellatus", which was previously commonly named taipan (coined from the aboriginal snake's name "Dhayban") became coastal taipan (or eastern taipan), and the now newly classified "Oxyuranus microlepidotus", became commonly known as inland taipan (or western taipan). The word "fierce" from its alternative name, fierce snake, describes its powerful venom. The inland taipan inhabits the black soil
A Sort of Life frankly with the personal demons he faced in his teens, including an account of several suicide attempts, the resulting psychoanalysis his father arranged for him and his brief fascination with Russian roulette. A Sort of Life A Sort of Life is the first volume of autobiography by British novelist Graham Greene, first published in 1971. This volume covers Greene's early life, from mundane childhood in Surrey, through to school and university and on to his early working life as a sub editor at The Times and his years as a struggling novelist. His memoirs have been criticized for being oddly