402 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



swollen and loose. Snout rather short, much bowed in profile, 

 obtusely rounded terminally, projecting below the level of the 

 lip. A pronounced furrow in the chin . Commissure of mouth 

 turned up posteriorly. Eye moderate, with dull greenish iris. 

 Neck stout, not or hardly apparent. Body elongate, robust ; 

 forebody subcylindrical and two-thirds to half the depth at 

 the greatest girth (one-third in heavily gravid females) ; much 

 compressed posteriorly, very heavy in gravid females. 



Identification. — The downward projection of the rostral 

 shield to well below the level of the lip, and the pronounced 

 furrow in the chin are both features peculiar to this seasnake. 

 The outer suture from the nostril, with few exceptions, passes 

 to the first supralabials, a peculiarity only seen in one other 

 seasnake, viz., Enhydris hardivicJcei. 



Colouration. — Very variable. The young are bluish or 

 bluish gray, with many well-defined black annuli, often 

 dilated vertebrally. As age advances these bands become 

 more and more obscured, first disappearing ventraUy to 

 become dorsal bars, and these in old specimens may disappear 

 altogether. In old adults the dorsum is frequently a uniform 

 bluish or bluish gray, merging at midcosta to yellow or 

 yellowish. Both dorsal and ventral hues again are subject to 

 much modification, according to whether the specimen has 

 recently desquamated or is about to do so. In the latter case, 

 the yellow on the belly becomes often tinged with brown. 



Habits. — This is far the commonest seasnake around our 

 shores and extraordinarily plentiiul. On the Malabar Coast 

 the fishermen brought them to me in bucketfuls until deterred 

 from doing so. I have certainly had over fifty brought to me 

 in one morning taken from their nets. On the Coromandel 

 Coast at Madras and at Gopalpore I have seen the nets brought 

 in with a dozen or more of these snakes among the haul. 

 At Cannanore the men in the 75th Camatic Infantry, fishing 

 in the sea mth lines, more often, it seemed to me, hooked 

 this seasnake than a fish ! 



It frequently comes up tidal rivers, and several were 

 captured for me at Watiya in Burma at a distance of 40 miles 

 from the sea. It has been taken in Tolly's Nullah, Calcutta. 

 80 miles from the sea. 



