en ee = a — ee rc.’ -—e Tr Oe i eS i et ed ie peel he 
204. myDRUs. 267. 
Maxillary longer than the ectopterygoid, not extending forwards 
as far as the palatine; poison-fangs rather short, followed, after a 
short interspace, by 7 or 8 solid teeth. Nostrils superior; snout long; 
head-shields large, nasals in contact with each other ; a preocular ; 
no loreal. Body rather short ; scales hexagonal or squarish, juxta- 
posed ; no distinct ventrals. 
Indian and Pacific Oceans. 
1. Hydrus platurus. 
Russell, Ind. Serp. i. pl. xli. (1796). 
Anguis platura, Linn. S. N. i. p. 891 (1766). 
Hydrus bicolor, Schneid. Hist. Amph. i. p. 242 (1799); Cantor, Cat. 
Mal. Rept. p. 185 (1847). 
Hydrophis platura, Latr. Rept. iv. p. 197 (1801). 
Pelamis bicolor, Daud. Rept. vii. p. 366, pl. Ixxxix. (1803); Gray, 
Cat. p. 41 (1849); Dum. & Bibr. vii. p. 13835 (1854); Giinth. 
Rept. Brit. Ind. p. 382 (1864); Krefft, Sn. Austral. p. 98, pl. xii. 
fig. 19 (1869); Strauch, Schl. Russ. R. p. 199 (1873); Fayrer, 
Thanatoph. Ind. pl. xvii. (1874); Peters § Doria, Ann. Mus. 
Genova, xiii. 1878, p. 416; Murray, Zool. Sind, p. 397 (1883) ; 
Fisk, Proc, Zool. Soc, 1885, p. 482. 
Hydrophis pelamis, Schleg. Phys. Serp. ii. p. 508, pl. xviii. figs, 13-15 
(1837), and Faun. Japon., Rept. p. 90, pl. viii. (1838). 
Pelamis ornata, Gray, Zool. Misc. p. 60 (1842), and Cat. p. 43. 
Hydrophis bicolor, Fischer, Abh, Naturw. Hamb, iii. 1856, p. 61; 
Jan, Icon. Gén. 40, pls. ii. & iii. (1872). 
Pelamis platurus, Stolczka, Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1872, p. 92; Garm. 
Bull, Essex Inst. xxiv. 1892, p. 88. | 
Hydrus platurus, Bouleng. Faun. Ind., Rept. p. 897 (1890) ; Boettg. 
Ber. Offenb. Ver. Nat. 1892, p. 88. 
Rostral as deep as broad or a little broader than deep; frontal 
large, at least as long as the snout or the parietals; one or two 
pre- and two or three postoculars; one or two suboculars some- 
times present; temporals small and numerous; seven or. eight 
upper labials, second in contact with the prefrontal, fourth, fifth, 
or fourth and fifth usually entering the eye ; chin-shields small or 
indistinct. 45 to 47 scales round the body, smooth in the female 
and young, laterals and ventrals rough with one, two, or three 
small tubercles in the male. Black or brown and yellow, the 
markings very variable. 
Total length 700 millim. ; tail 80. 
Indian Ocean; Tropical and Subtropical Pacific. 
A. Yellow, with brown, black-edged cross-bands ; black bars 
between the cross-bands, on the sides of the belly. (P. ornata, 
Gray.) | 
a, Yg. Borneo. (Type of P. ornata. 
b. Yg. . India (?). wv 
B. Anterior third of body with a black dorsal stripe; further back, 
a series of transverse dorsal rhombs on the back, and black 
spots on the sides and belly, (Var. maculata, Jan.) 
a. Yg. — Zoological Society. 
