MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 725 



Color.— Head blackish above, merging to yellowish laterally. Chin (except 

 at tip which is blackish) and throat yellowish. Body anteriorly lemon-yellow 

 with black dorsal rhomboids confluent by their angles Vertebrally. Black- 

 similarly shaped marks on belly, confluent by their angles, form a ventral 

 streak. Posteriorly olive greenish black dorsally with obscure transverse 

 darker bars, merging to pale lemon in the flanks. The ventral black line is 

 continued to vent and after this is most conspicuous at the lower border 

 and tip of tail. Anteriorly the colors are bright, and glistening ; posteriorly 

 pale, and dull. 



Scale Characters. Rostral. — Height in median line very slightly exceeds the 

 breadth. Lower border with central lobulus as in other sea snakes in 

 contact with 4 shields, of which the 1st supralabial sutures are rather 

 larger than the nasal. 



Nasals. — Large, contiguous, in contact with the 1st and 2nd supralabials, 

 (and 3rd also on right side). Length 3 times the suture between the 

 prefrontals. Nostrils situated in postero-external part of shield with no 

 suture running to shield margin. 



Prefrontals. — Small. In contact with nasal, preocular, supraocular, and 

 frontal (and 3rd supralabial on right side). 



Frontal. — Small. Length less than distance to rostral ; subequal to supra- 

 oculars ; rather greater than half the parietals. Breadth. Subequal to 

 supraocular. In contact with (j shields, of which the parietal sutures are 

 longest, and the prefrontal smallest. 



Parietals. — Bather narrow. Supralahials 7. All well developed ; the 

 3rd and 4th touching the eye ; 5th largest. 

 Prceoculars. — One ; smaller than the eye. 

 Postoculars. — Two ; the lower very small. 



Temporals. — One, large, in contact with the 5th and 6th supralahials, and 

 succeeded by a rather larger shield touching the parietals. 



Sublinguals. — Two well developed, subequal pairs, ihe fellows of each in 

 contact with one another. 



Infralabials. — 6. Well developed, the first 4 touch the sublinguals. The 

 first are large, in contact with one another forming a suture larger than that 

 between the anterior sublingual fellows. The 4th is the largest of the series 

 and constitutes the pentagonal ; it is fully once and a third as broad as the 

 posterior sublinguals, and is in contact with two scales behind. 



Scales. — Anterior (i.e., two heads lengths behind the head) 21 rows, glossy, 

 smooth, and very distinctly imbricate, about as long as broad, subequal, or 

 those of last row very slightly largest. Midbody (not including tail) 35-37 

 rows, not glossy, hexagonal, juxtaposed, bi or trituberculate, those of lowest 

 rows plurituberculate, and larger than those of vertebral rows. Posterior (i.e., 

 two heads lengths in front of vent) 35-39 rows, with characters as in midbody. 

 Supracaudals. — Midtail 14 on each side, with 1 above and 1 below. A shield 

 at tip of tail about twice the size of adjacent scales. 



