434 



BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Isliigaki shima in the Riu Kiu Archipelago, while the other two speci- 

 mens in British Museum have no locality attached to them. Doctor 

 Wall now records three from Okinawa. 



List of sjx'cimnis of Distcira [lodcffroyi. 



33933 

 33934 

 33935 

 33936 



Locality. 



Female a . 



Male 



...do 



...do 



Ishigaki I., Riu Kiu.. 



do 



do 



do 



When col- 

 lected. 



1809. 

 April-May. 



do 



do 



do 



By whom col- 

 lected or from 

 whom received. 



i B 



A. Owston .. 



...do 



...do 



...do 



O ?3 



rt Description, p. 432; figs. 352-3.54. 

 [DISTEIRA VIPERINA" (Schmidt).] 



1852. Thalassophis viperina Schmidt, Al)h. Naturw. Ver. Hainburij, II, Pt. 2, p. 79, 

 pi. Ill (type-locality, Java; type in Hamburg Mus.). — Hijdrophis (Thalas- 

 sophis) viperinus Boettger, Offenbach. Ver. Naturk. 2G-28 Ber., 1888, 

 p. 91 (Hainan^. — Distira viperina Boulenger, Fauna Brit. India, Kept., 

 1890, p. 413; Cat. Sn. Brit. Mus., Ill, 1896, p. 298 (Maskat to Hong- 

 kong). — Boettger, Kat. Schl. Mus. Senckenberg. , 1898, p. 114 (Hainan). 



1854. Distfira prsescutata Dumeril and Bibron, Erpet. Gen., VII, Pt. 2, p. 13.31 

 (tyj^e-locality unknown; type in Paris Mus.). 



1856. Hydrophis doliata Fischer, Abh. Naturw. Ver. Hanil)urg, III, p. 56 

 (Schmidt's t\'pe of T. viperina; not of Lacepede, 1804). 



1887. Hydrophis jayakari Boulenger, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5), XX, p. 408 (type- 

 locality, Maskat, Arabia; type in Brit. Mus.; Doctor Jayakar, collector). 



1887. Hydrophis plumbea Murray, Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc, II (p. 34). 



No specimen of this species being at hand, I submit the diagnosis 

 given by Boulenger in the Catalogue of Snakes. 



Diagnosis. — Head rather small; body moderately elongate, rather 

 slender anteriorly; rostral as deep as broad; nasals as long as or a 

 little shorter than the frontal; suture between the prefrontals very 

 short; frontal as broad as long, as long as its distance from the 

 rostral or end of the snout, shorter than the parietals; one or two pre- 

 and one or two postoculars; 7 or 8 upper labials, second largest, 

 fourth or third and fourth entering the eye; one or two anterior tem- 

 porals ; two pairs of chin-shields, in contact with each other, posterior 

 longest; 27 to 29 scales round the neck, 37 to 43 round the body; 

 scales juxtaposed, obtusely keeled; ventrals relatively large ante- 

 terorly, bituberculate in the male, 235-267. Slaty gray above, with 

 rhomboidal transverse black spots, white or pink on the sides and 

 inferiorly; some specimens uniform dark gray above; in the young, 

 the black spots are continued down the sides of the body; end of 

 tail black. 



o Signifying viper-^ihe. 



