96 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



a man bitten by a Krait can only be cured by the 

 Krait anti-venin, and one bitten by a Cobra can only 

 be cured by the Cobra anti-venin. 



The Sea-Snakes, constituting the sub-family Hydro- 

 phiince of the Colnbridce-Proteroglypha, have a wide 

 distribution, ranging throughout the Indian Ocean so 

 far south as the Cape of Good Hope and throughout 

 the Western South Pacific. All the species, with one 

 exception, are truly aquatic, spending their life in the 

 sea or in tidal rivers, though I have taken one of the 

 marine forms, Distira cyanocincta, on land at some dis- 

 tance from water. Platurus is a somewhat anomalous 

 genus connecting the Hydrophiince with the Elapince ; 

 one species is frequently found on land, and one speci- 

 men has been taken on a rocky island of the Philip- 

 pine group at a considerable elevation above sea-level. 

 This species, though provided with the formidable 

 poison-apparatus characteristic of the Sea-Snakes, is very 

 gentle, and allows itself to be handled without attempt- 

 ing to bite. 1 All the Bornean Sea-Snakes, of which 

 there are thirteen, are very poisonous and vicious. 

 One of the commonest species is Enhydrina valakadien, 

 and I have seen great numbers of it in the sea between 

 Singapore and Sarawak, and have admired the graceful 

 way in which they swam. The species are generally 

 banded in two colours, black and yellow, grey and 

 white, or some other combination, and are consequently 

 very conspicuous. The tail is flattened from side to 

 side, and forms a very effective paddle for swimming. 

 I have taken specimens that have been much infested 

 by small barnacles of the genus Dichelaspis attached to 

 the scales. A friend once caught a specimen of Enhyd- 

 1 Boulenger, Natural Science, I. (1892), p. 44. 



