896 COLUBRIDvE. 



An azygous shield between the praefrontals, and sometimes one 

 or two between the internasals ; one prse- and two post-oculars ; 

 6 or 7 upper labials, third and fourth entering the eye ; temporals 

 1 + 2 or 2 + 2. Scales in 21-25 rows. Ventrals not keeled, 

 195-240 ; subcaudals 30-45. Olive above, yellowish below, with 

 black annuli which are as wide as the interspaces between them 

 or narrower. 



Total length 5 feet. 



Hob. Same as the preceding. According to observations recently 

 made in Japan, this snake does not bite. 



Genus ENHYDEIS, 

 Merrem, Tent. Syst. Amph. p. 140, 1820. 



Maxillary short, about as long as the transpalatine, with a pair 

 of large grooved fangs followed, after a considerable interval, by 

 two to four small solid teeth. Nostrils superior; nasal shields in 

 contact with each other; head-shields large. Body short and 

 stout. All the scales hexagonal or squarish and juxtaposed. 

 Ventrals very feebly developed, if at all distinct. 



Only two species : 



Parietals broken up into small shields E. curtus, p. 396. 



Parietals large E. hardivickii, p. 397. 



489. Enhydris curtus. 



Hydrus curtus, Shaw, Zool. iii, p. 502. 



Enhydris curtus, Merr, Tent. p. 140. 



Hydrophis propinquus, Jan, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1859, p. 151, and 



Icon. Ophid. 41, pi. i, fig. 2. 

 Hydrophis curta, Giinth. Rept. B. I. p. 379; Fayrer, Thanatoph. 



pi. xxiv; Stoliczka, P. A. S. B. 1872, p. 91 ; Murray, Zool. Sind, 



p. 395. 



Parietals broken up into small shields ; one pra>- and one or 

 two postoculars ; two or three superposed anterior temporals ; 7 

 upper labials, fourth, or third and fourth, entering the eye; chin- 

 shields very small, and separated by scales, or quite indistinct. 

 30 to 38 scales round the anterior part of the body, 33 to 42 round 

 the middle, with a very feebly-developed tubercle or short keel ; 

 the scales on the lower surface, in the male, with a very strong 

 spinose tubercle. Ventrals distinct in the anterior half of the 

 body, with two spinose tubercles in the male, 150-200*. Above 

 with dark transverse bands, broadest in the middle ; these bands 

 are usually very dark, nearly black, but in some old specimens 

 rather indistinct ; end of tail black. 



Total length 2| feet, 



Hob. Coasts of India and Ceylon. 



* As remarked by Stoliczka in this species, and by Boet.tger in the following, 

 he males hare fewer scales than the females. 



