HY.DROPHIS CYANOOINCTA. 



" Head of moderate size and width ; neck and body rather elongate ; 

 generally two labial shields below the eye ; two post-oculars (exceptionally 

 confluent into one) ; two or more temporal-shields on the side of each 

 occipital ; two pairs of chin-shields, the anterior of which are in contact 

 with each other ; twenty-nine to thirty-three series of scales round the 

 neck. Scales slightly imbricate, rhombic, faintly keeled ; three on the 

 highest part of the body, rather longer than high. Ventrals, 320-360 — 

 406-426, twice or thrice as large as the scales of the adjoining series ; 

 almost all are entire, not longitudinally divided, and bitubercular ; four 

 anal-shields, the outer of which are larger than the inner ; terminal 

 scale of the tail rather small or of moderate size. Greenish-olive on the 

 back, yellowish on the sides and belly ; trunk with from fifty to seventy- 

 five black cross-bands, which are broadest on the back and broader than 

 the interspaces of the ground colour ; they are narrower on the sides, 

 sometimes disappearing altogether with age on the sides and belly, or 

 visible only as irregular spots on the ventral shields. In young and 

 half-grown specimens they surround the body entirely, and are some- 

 times joined by a black band running along the whole line of the ventral 

 shields. The head is greenish-olive above and yellowish on the sides ; 

 in the young, black variegated with yellow, the yellow colour sometimes 

 forming a frontal and temporal band. This is one of the commonest 

 sea-snakes, occurring on the coasts of Ceylon, Madras, in the Bay of 

 Bengal, in the East Indian Archipelago, and in the seas of China and 

 Japan. It attains to a length of more than six feet. Old males have a 

 remarkably thick and rounded tail." 



