190 DR. J. ANDERSON ON INDIAN REPTILES. [Feb. 21, 



at the same time, Giinther stating that his eight specimens show 

 the same assemblage of characters as laid down in his descrip- 

 tion, the occurrence of fifty-six rings in my specimen suggests that 

 this multiplicity is either due to greater age (for it measures 

 49 inches in length) or to variation. The head, too, is wholly 

 black, with the exception of a yellow band from the posterior margin 

 of one eye to the other. The upper surface is olive-green, and the 

 sides and belly rich dark gamboge-yellow, and the fifty-six rings 

 are intensely black, and the scales generally have a very bright 

 shining lustre. 



Fallahs Mullah, a tidal stream, Calcutta. 



If this form should prove to be new, I would indicate it as P. 

 affinis, n. sp. 



Hydrophis granosa, n. sp. 



Hydrophis gracilis, Shaw ; Theobald (in part.), Cat. Rept. As. 

 Soc. Mus. 1868, p. 68. 



Anterior part of the body moderately slender ; head rather tapering 

 and laterally compressed. Two labials below the eye; third labial 

 widely separated from the nasal by the second labial, frontal, and prse- 

 ocular ; one large anterior temporal, with two smaller ones behind 

 it ; one prceocular and one postocular ; one pair of round scales 

 like chin-shields not in contact with each other or with any of the 

 labials. Forty-three rows of scales round the neck. Scales small, 

 with a prominent keel slightly dilated at either extremity ; the 

 scales are elongately leaf-shaped and markedly imbricate on the 

 slender portion of the body, but on the thick portion behind they 

 are truncated at their tips and less imbricate ; the scales imme- 

 diately behind the head, and the shields of the head generally, and 

 the scales on the lower jaw, are covered with minute rounded gra- 

 nular tubercles, which are especially numerous on the rostral. The 

 ventrals are twice the size of the neighbouring scales, and are of a 

 uniform size throughout, and those of the thick part of the body 

 are not split ; eaeh carries from two to four small tubercles, 

 usually arranged in pairs, two large ones anteriorly, and two smaller 

 ones posteriorly, and external to the latter. Six anal shields, the 

 outer one very large, and equal to two of the others in size. Ven- 

 trals 105. Terminal scale of the tail small. Fifty-two non-con- 

 fluent black bands on the body, extending down the sides, but not 

 reaching the ventral surface ; eight black bars on the tail. The 

 ground-colour in this spirit-specimen is pale yellowish. It was ob- 

 tained at the Sand Heads. 



The number and character of the scales of this Snake and the 

 scale-like nature of its chin-shields seem to indicate that it is 

 closely allied to H. stokesii, a species which I have never seen. 

 By some of its characters it is also allied to H. ccerulescens, Shaw. 



Hydrophis jerdonii, Gray ; Gthr. 1. c. p. 362. 



Total length 38f- inches, tail 3£. In this specimen there are forty 



