SNAKES or CEYLON. 421 



History. — First described by Liim6 in 1766. The type 

 w^ preserved in Stockholm. 



General Characters.— Rather a small snake, growing to 

 little over 2 feet in length, and rather eeJ-like in confor- 

 mation. Head large, elongate, much depressed. Snout very 

 long, broadly rounded terminally, slightly declivous. Eye 

 moderate. Neck fairly evident. Body compressed, of 

 nearly uniform cahbre throughout, with a sharp ridge along 

 the back, deepest near midbody, attenuating to the neck and 

 posteriorly. Belly forming an obtuse keel. 



Identification. — The costals broader than long, and in 40 

 to 54 rows two heads-lengths behind the head, will distinguish 

 this from other seasnakes. The figure-of-8 tubercles are 

 only seen in two other hydrophids, viz., Microcephalophis 

 gracilis and cantoris. Its colouration too is very distinctive, 

 and if once seen the snake cannot be mistaken for any other 

 species of seasnake. 



Colouration. — -There are several colour varieties, which may 

 be grouped as follows : — 



Variety (A) (= the bicolor of Schneider and variety E of 

 Boulenger's Catalogue, Vol. III., p. 268) : Head chocolate 

 or black above, yellow beneath. Body with a broad stripe 

 dorsally of the same colour as the head. The lower edge of 

 the stripe is straight, or festooned posteriorly, and sharply 

 demarcated from the pale yellow of the sides and belly. A 

 paler intermediate lateral stripe may separate the dorsal 

 and Ventral hues. Tail with black dorsal bars and lateral 

 spots. 



This is by far the commonest variety on our coasts. Some 

 specimens have a series of black costal spots in the yellow, or 

 these may be confluent and form a more or less irregularly 

 outlined stripe. (Variety C of Boulenger's Catalogue.) Such 

 specimens are not infrequent. 



I have seen specimens in the Indian Museum from Ceylon 

 and Puri. Six out of thirteen e^Jamples in the Colombo 

 Museum are of this variety. One has a paler yellow inter- 

 mediate stripe, and one a pale narrow vertebral stripe. A 

 specimen in the Bombay Natural History Society's collection 

 from Madras and another in the Indian Museum from the 



