ey 
280 COLUBRID. 
yellow cross-bands ; body likewise with yellow cross-bands or rings, 
which may be interrupted on the back. 
Total length 930 millim. ; tail 80. 
Bay of Bengal. 
, 5. g (V. 321) & Q Bengal. Gen. Hardwicke [P.]. 
. ; oy 3 e (Types.) 
. Yg. (V. 278, 278). Bay of Bengal. Wo “pice Esq. 
15. Hydrophis gracilis. 
Russell, Ind. Serp. ii. pl. xiii, (1801). 
Hydrus gracilis, Shaw, Zool. iii, p. 560 (1802). 
Enhydris gracilis, Merr. Tent. p: 141 (1820). 
Disteira gracilis, Fitzing. N. Class. Rept. p. 55 (1826). 
Microcephalophis gracilis, Less. in Bélang. Voy. Ind. Or., Rept. pl. iii. 
(1834); Gray, Cat. p. 46 (1849). 
Liopala gracilis, Gray, Zool. Mise. p. 60 (1842). 
See ate microcephala, Schmidt, Abh. Naturw. Hamb, ii. 1852, 
. 78, pl. il. 
Heirons gracilis, part., Dum. § Bibr. vii. p. 1852 (1854). 
microcephala, Dum. § Bibr. t. c. p. 1856; Fischer, Abh. 
Naturw. Hamb, iii. 1856, p. 52; Jan, Icon. Gén. 41, pl. v. fig. 2 
(1872). 
— gracilis, Giinth. Rept. Brit. Ind. p. 878 (1864); Murray, Zool. 
Sind, p. 395 (1884); Bouleng. Fawn. Ind., Rept. p. 404 (1890) ; 
Boettg. Ber. Offend. Ver. Nat, 1892, p. 89. 
guentheri (zon Theod.), Murray, l. c. p. 896, pl. —. 
Head very small, narrow; body long, extremely slender ante- 
riorly. Snout strongly projecting beyond the lower jaw; rostral 
as deep as broad; frontal very small, longer than broad, hardly as 
long as its distance from the rostral ; one pre- and one postocular ; 
a single anterior temporal, followed by a second equally large shield ; 
six upper labials, third and fourth entering the eye; two pairs of 
small chin-shields, in contact with each other. 19 to 21 scales round 
the neck, 29 to 33 round the body ; scales smooth, rhomboidal and 
imbricate anteriorly, elsewhere hexagonal, juxtaposed, each with two 
or more tubercles, which are feeble in the female and very strong in 
the male. Ventrals distinct only anteriorly, very feebly enlarged or 
split into two posteriorly, 225-297. Bluish black or greyish olive 
above in the adult, with more or less distinct lighter cross-bands 
anteriorly. Young with the head and neck black, the latter region 
with light transverse bands; body with rhombic black cross-bands 
continued to the belly or subinterrupted on the sides; or black, with 
a series of elliptical vertical whitish spots on each side. 
Total length 1020 millim. ; tail 90, 
Coasts of Persia, India, and Burma; Malay Archipelago. 
a. Yg. (V. 238). Jask, Persia. W. T. Blanford, Esq. 
b. 2 (V. 252). Malabar. Col. Beddome [C.}. 
e. g (V. 257). Ceylon E. W. H. Holdsworth, 
Esq. [0.]. 
P 
