436 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



March 1916, contained eight embryos var3dng in length from 

 10 to lOi inches. 



Poison. — Nothing is known. There is no record of a bite in 

 the human subject, but the poison may be judged to be virulent, 

 from the fact that a fowl that Russell caused to be bitten by a 

 five-footer succambed in 8 minutes. 



Lepidosis. — Bostral. — Broader than high. Nasals. — In contact 

 behind the rostral. When there is a suture from the nostril this 

 passes to the 2nd labial. Prefrontals. — Touch the 2nd labial. 

 Frontal. — The sutures with the parietals are rather longer than 

 with the supraoculars. Supraoculars. — In length and breadth 

 about two-thirds to three-fourths that of the frontal. PrKocvlar. — 

 One. Postoculars. — Usuall}'' two, sometimes one. Temporals. — 

 Usually two between the parietal and the 6th labial. Labials. — 

 7 to 8. The first 5 usually entire and the 3rd, 4th, and 6th usually 

 touching the eye. Infralahials. — 5 ; the 3rd and 4th broadest, the 

 6th touching 3 or 4 scales behind. Marginals. — Usually a complete 

 row after the 2nd infralabial, rarely, a single cuneate, or a 

 complete row after the 3rd infralabial. Sublinguals. — Two pairs, 

 the fellows of each in contact or the posterior rarely separated. 

 Gostals. — Two headslengths behind the head 27 to 36; at the 

 greatest girth 38 to 49. Anteriorly imbricate, posteriori}^ 

 imbricate, sub-imbricate, or juxtaposed. Each scale has a keel 

 occupying its median three-fifths or so. Almost alwaj'S this keel 

 is divided by one or two indentations into two or three parts. 

 The very distinctive keels and their serrations are much more 

 conspicuous in males where they are sometimes most pronounced 

 and even spinous on the belly. In females and young though 

 somewhat obscure they are usually discernible if looked for. 

 Ventrals. — 296 to 398, usually entire, rather less than twice the 

 breadth of the last costal row, keeled on either side like the lowest 

 costals. 



Dentition. — Maxilla. — In well over 20 specimens examined I 

 find there are nearly always 7 teeth behind the fangs, but they 

 vary from 6 to 10. The numbers of mandibular, and other teeth 

 given are from the single skull in \\\j collection and are : Palatine. 

 — 9. Pterygoid. — 18. Mandibular. — 14 to 17. 



Length. — Adults are usually 4 or 6 feet long, the largest in the 

 British Museum being 4 feet 10 inches. I doubt if I have ever 

 seen one 6 feet, but Murray says it grows to 7 feet. Judging from 

 the length of the young compared with those of spiralis, one would 

 expect to hear of as large or even lai-ger specimens than in that 

 species. 



Distribution. — In Indian limits it occurs from the Persian Gulf 

 to Tenasserim. It is probably the common set sea-snake on our 



