222 MAJOR F. WALL, I.M.S., C.M.Z.S. 
and in midbody the number (34), though low, agrees with Anderson’s specimens in the 
British Museum labelled cyanocincta from Mergui, in which they are 33 to 34. The 
affinities of the specimen are so extremely close to cyanocincta that I cannot believe 
it is distinct. 
Fig 34.—Distira frontalas (x13). After Jan, livr. 39, pl. v, fig. 2. 
frontalis (Jan).—This name was given by Jan to a single specimen which he 
described and figured ; and Mr. Boulenger similarly names one specimen in the British 
Museum collection. The two were probably considered identical on their common 
possession of one unusual feature, v7z., that the anterior angle of the frontal shield 
projects, and separates the prefrontal pair. This, however, is clearly an abnormality, 
for I have seen the same condition in more than one specimen of viperina and occasion- 
ally in other species; and Mr. Boulenger notes that it occurs in the type-specimen of 
brooki (Catalogue, vol. 11, p. 283), a gravid female, though absent in her fully developed 
young. Apart from this abnormality the British Museum specimen appears to me to 
be an almost typical ormata (Gray), and the posterior maxillary teeth being grooved, 
I include it in that species. Jan’s specimen, however, Iam unable to separate from 
members of the species cyanocincta (Daudin). It does not accord with Mr. Boulenger’s 
description of H. frontalis on page 276 of the Catalogue in the following particulars: 
The neck is not very slender, being about three-fifths the body depth ; the labials are 
eight, with the third, fourth and fifth touching the eye; both pairs of chin shie'ds are 
well-developed and the posterior are only just separated. I count. 30 scales in the 
anterior body. Though unable to verify the presence of grooves in the teeth, it 
appears to me probable that this will prove to be a cyanocincta aberrant in the division 
of the first supralabial, the division of the frontal and the separation of the preefron- 
tals, all of which conditions are to be met with as abnormalities in certain individuals 
of other species. 
I 
Description.—This is based on 81 examples, inclusive of 12 considered distinct 
by Professor Roulenger, which I think the same. The body anteriorly is from one-third 
to two-thirds the greatest depth, probably less, my notes on this point being very 
incomplete ; and I have no record of the measurements in a gravid female. 
Rostral,—the portion visible above is less than two-thirds the internasal suture. 
Prefrontals,—touch the second supralabial. (Two exceptions and on one side 
only.) Postoculars,—two usually. (In eleven examples only one, and in five of 
