234 SNAKES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



It will be seen, therefore, that Philippine specimens have an 

 average of twenty ventrals more than the average of spec- 

 imens listed by Boulenger. They differ also from other snakes 

 of this species in the presence of the small azygous postmental 

 and (in the males) of a double row of keels along the ventral 

 scales with the scutes notched. I am convinced that Philippine 

 forms represent a subspecies of Laticauda colubrina; whether 

 it belongs with the typical form I am uncertain. The figure 

 given in Cuvier '^ is very probably of this group, since it agrees 

 in the number of stripes and in the presence of a postmental. 



Remarks. — This species is abundant along the rocky coasts 

 of the Philippines. In the Sulu Archipelago I found the snake 

 in large numbers on small rocky islands, usually in cracks in 

 cliffs and under rocks. A number of specimens taken rotted 

 from lack of proper preservatives. The snakes of this species 

 are more terrestrial than are the other poisonous water snakes. 

 They feed wholly on fish, usually eels. When on land they are 

 rather helpless, and may be picked up by the tail with impunity. 

 The species is poisonous, probably deadly to man. 



In the Philippines specimens are known from Samar, southern 

 Luzon, Bantayan, Palawan, Negros, and also from the small 

 islands of Dipolod, Tulian, and Bubuan, in the Sulu Archipelago. 



LATICAUDA SEM I FASCI ATA (Reinwardt) 



Plate 3, fig. 2; Plate .30 



Platunts semifasciatus Reinwardt, in Schlegel, Phys. Serp. 2 (1837) 



516. 

 Hydrophis colubrina Schlegel, Phys. Serp., Atlas, pi. IS, figs. 18-20; 



Fauna Jap., Kept. (1837) 92, pi. 10. 

 Platurus fasciatus var. seinifasciata Fischer, Abh. Natur. Ver. 



Hamburg- 3 (1856) 30. 

 Platurus schistorhynchus Gunther, Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1874) 



297, pi. 45, fig. B; Boulenger, Fauna Brit. India, Rept. (1890) 



395; Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus. 3 (1896) 309; Wall, Proc. Zool. Soc. 



London (1903) 101; Mem. As. Soc. Bengal 2 (1907-10) 184, fig. 1. 

 Laticauda scmifasciata Stejneger, Bull, U. S. Nat. Mus. 58 (1907) 



409, pi. 22. 



Description of species. — (From Stejneger.) "Rostral broader 

 than high, upper edge broad and truncate, scarcely visible from 

 a):)ove; three internasals, one unpaired anterior adjoining the 

 rostral, of which it is in reality only a detached portion, and 

 two posterior normal ones broadly in contact ; three prefrontals, 

 a median pentagonal one, posteriorly broadly in contact with 

 frontal, and two lateral ones, broadly in contact with frontal 



Reg. Anim. Atlas (by Duvernoy) pi. 36. 



