224 



upper labials; chin-shields usually broken up into scales. Body 

 short and stout, compressed behind the neck; scales 



very small, juxtaposed, 

 in 89— 100 rows, dorsals 

 with a central tubercle 

 or keel; ventrals small, 

 310—370. 



Pale olive-grey above, 

 with dark transverse bars 

 narrower than the inter- 

 spaces and tapering to a 

 point on the sides. Lower 

 surface white. Length of 

 head and body 520 mm.; 

 tail 80 mm. 

 Habitat: Java (mouth of the Mengala river!). — Malay 

 Peninsula. 



55. Hydrus Schneider. 

 (Schneider, Hist. Amph. I p. 233, 1799). 



Snout long; nostrils superior; eye small; pupil round; head- 

 shields large; nasals in contact; praeocular present; no loreal. 

 Maxillary teeth two fangs, separated by a short interspace 

 from 7 — 8 smaller teeth. Body short, covered with juxtaposed 

 scales; ventrals indistinct. 



Distribution. Indian and Pacific Oceans. 



A single species. 



Fig. 87. Thalassophis annandalei 

 (Laidlaw). Head from above. 



I. Hydrns platurus (L.). 



Anguis flatura^ Linne, Syst. Nat. I 1766, p. 391. 



Hydrus platurus^ Boulenger, Cat. Sn. HI 1896, p. 267 (s. syn.). 



Rostral as deep as broad or a little more broad; nasals 

 large, superior; praefrontals in contact with the second labial; 

 frontal large, at least as long as the parietals; one or two 

 prae- and two or three postoculars; sometimes one or two 

 suboculars; temporals small; seven or eight irregular upper 

 labials, fourth and fifth usually entering the eye; chin-shields 

 small or indistinct. Scales smooth in the female and young, 

 laterals and ventrals with one to three tubercles in the male, 

 in 45 — -47 rows, juxtaposed. 



Yellow above, with brown, black-edged bands across the 



