398 



BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



len<i;er under the oldest nanie, B. candidus. The typical form seems 

 to be confined to islands in the Malayan Archipelago; another, var. 

 cseruleus, extends over entire India (exclusive of the Himalayas and 

 Ceylon) and the Malay Peninsula; the third, the one here treated of, 

 is recorded from Toungoo, in lower Burma, not far from the Karennee 

 Hills, and from A^arious localities in southern China. The first is 

 considered most distinct, and there seems to be no good reason for 

 connecting it nomenclaturally with our Chinese form. Of the Indian 

 tropical form Boulenger ssijs that it is "almost completely connected" 

 with B. multicinctus. This "almost" only prevents me at present 

 from speaking of the latter as Bungarus csendeus multicinctus. 



Another very closely allied form, differing chiefly in the less-pro- 

 nounced enlargement of the median dorsal scale row, B. lividus, 

 inhabits Assam. The Ceylon krait B. ceylonicus, is another nearly 

 related form. 



Description. — Adult male; Science College Museum, Tokyo, No. 15; 

 Taipa, Formosa; November, 1897; T. Tada, collector (figs. 325- 

 327). Rostral broader than high; visible from above; internasals, 



Figs. 325-327. — Bungakus multicinctus. nat. size. 325, underside of head; 326, side of head; 

 327, top of head. No. 15, Sci. Coll. Tokyo. 



broader than long, half as large as prefrontals which are broadly in 

 contact with supraoculars; frontal as long as its distance from tip of 

 snout and interparietal suture twice as wide as supraoculars at center 

 of eye; parietals much longer than frontal, nearly as long as their 

 distance from tip of snout; nostril large, vertically elli]>tic, between 

 two nasals, the posterior narrowed behind so as to meet the preocular 

 in a very short suture; no loreal; one long preocular, anteriorly in 

 narrow contact with posterior nasal; eye rather small, its vertical 

 diameter shorter than its distance from edge of lip; two postoculars; 

 temporals 1 4- 2 ; seven supralabials, last three largest, second in contact 

 with ]ireocular, third and fourth entering eye; foui" lower labials in con- 

 tact with anterior chin-sliields which are longer than the posterior pair; 

 15 rows of smooth scales, without apical ])its, the median row greatly 

 enlarged, more than twice as large as the other dorsals; 210 ventrals; 



