SNAKES or CEYLON. 379 



Gostals : Longer than broad and imbricate or subimbricate on 

 the slender anterior part of the body ; about or nearly as broad 

 as long, and subimbricate or juxtaposed on the compressed 

 posterior part, with a short pronounced keel that occupies 

 about the median third of each scale. In 36 to 45 rows two 

 heads-lengths behind the head ; 42 to 53 in midbody ; and 36 to 

 46 two heads-lengths before the vent. Ventrais : 277 to 339 ; 

 entire throughout, and about or nearly twice the breadth of the 

 last costal row. For a seasnake the range of ventrais is 

 notably small. Anal : Variable. 



(6) Anomalies — Frontal : Rarely divided longitudinally, 

 Parietals : Rarely more or less disintegrate ; rarely touch the 

 upper postoculars. Postoculars : Rarely two. Tem/porals : 

 Sometimes a fairly well-developed anterior shield. Supra- 

 lahials : Rarely six. I have seen the 1st divided in one 

 example ; and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th touching the eye on one side 

 in one specimen. Guneate : Sometimes two or more after the 

 3rd infralabial. 



Dentition. — Detailed under the genus. 



Distribution. — (a) General : Coasts between Bombay and 

 Penang. 



(b) Local : It is an extremely common snake in the locality 

 of Bombay, and it is curious to note that north and sOuth it is 

 extremely rare. Murray does not mention it from the Sind 

 Coast, and there was no specimen in the Quetta Museum when 

 the collection was submitted to me for identification. I failed 

 to get it in Cannanore, there is no specimen in the Trivandrum 

 Museum, and I can find no records from the Malabar Coast, 

 other than the neighbourhood of Bombay. It is not represent- 

 ed in the Colombo Museum. Out of 192 seasnakes collected 

 for me in Madras in 1917 no single specimen was included, 

 and I have only seen one from that locality. The type was 

 from Vizagapatam. Further north, especially in the vicinity 

 of the Sunderbunds, it is again quite a common snake. Evans 

 and I failed to obtain a specimen from the coast of Burma, 

 and I can find no record from this coast. Further south 

 about Mergiii it is a fairly common snake, as there are many 

 specimens so labelled in the Indian Museum. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Malay Peninsula, where it appears to reach the 



fi4 6(6)20 



