430 



BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



in the Persian Gulf and Maskat in Aral)ia to Japan and, according to 

 Peters, even to the Kingsmill Islands (Gilbert Arcliipelago) in the east. 



Whether the specimen figured in Fauna Japonica (Plate VII) be the 

 one collected by von Siebold or by Buerger (see p. 426 under D. m.elano- 

 cephala) there can be but little doubt that it was taken in Japanese 

 or rather in Riu KJuan waters. That it is rather common around 

 Formosa seems proven by five specimens in British Museum collected 

 by Swinhoe. 



Stray specimens may occasionally drift far enough north to be 

 taken in Japan proper as is shown by the specimen in the U. S. Na- 

 tional Museiun which was taken off Inatori, Idzu, on December 22, 

 1903. 



List of speririiens of IHsfeira cyanocincla. 



a Description, p. 428. b Boulenger, Cat. Ill, p. 295. <■ Boulenger, Cat. II 1, p. 29(j. 



DISTEIRA GODEFFROYI« (Peters). 



1872. Hydrophis godejfroyi Teters, Mon. Ber. Berlin Akad. Wis?., 1872, p. 856, 

 pi. I, fig. 3 (type-locality, Kingsmill Islands; types in Berliji Mus.). — 

 Distira godeffroyi Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., Ill, 1896, p. 291 

 (2 ispecimens Brit. Mus., loc. unknowii). 



1903. Distira ornata Wall, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1903, pp. 95, 101 ("Loo 

 Choos") (not of Gray, 1842); 1905, II, p. 517 (Okinawa). 



Four specimens from Ishigaki shima I refer to D. godeffroyi with 

 considerable hesitation.'' They have the maxillary teeth following 

 the poison fang distinctly grooved, and no doubt they are properly 

 located among the 'species included by Boulenger in the genus Disteira. 

 Doctor Wall, who examined them while yet in Mr. Owston's possession, 

 identified them as D. ornata and recorded them under that name in 



a In honor of the German merchant, Johann Cesar Godeffroy (born in Kiel, July 1 , 

 1813; died in Hamburg, Fel). 9, 1885) who in 1861 founded the Museum Godeffroy. 

 The museum which was finally dispersed after his death was devoted mostly to Poly- 

 nesian zoology and anthropology. 



b This hesitation does not refer to the specimens in Britisli Museum from an unknown 

 locality and named D. godeffroyi by Boulenger, but to the species as originally de- 

 scribed by Peters from the Kingsmill Islands. 



