280 COLUBEID^. 



yellow cross-bands ; body likewise with yellow cross-bands or rings, 

 which may be interrupted on the back. 



Total length 930 miUim. ; tail 80. 



Bay of Bengal. 



«, h. cJ (V. 321) & 2 Bengal. Gen. Hardwicke [P.]. 



(V.337). (Types.) 



c-rf. Yg. (V. 278, 278). Bay of Bengal. W. Theobald, Esq. 



[C.]. 



15. HydropMs gracilis. 



Mussell, Ind. Serp. ii. pi. xiii. (1801). 

 Hydrus gracilis, Shaw, Zool. iii. p. 560 (1802). 

 Enhydris gracilis, Merr: Tent. p. 141 (1820). 

 Disteira gracilis, Fitzing. N. Class. Bept. p. 55 (1826). 

 Microcephalophis gracUis, Less, in Belang. Voy. Ind. Or., Eept. pi. iii. 



(1834) ; Gray, Cat. p. 46 (1849). 

 Liopala gracilis, Oray, Zool. Misc. p. 60 (1842). 

 Thalassophis microcephala, Schmidt, Abh. Naturm. Samb. ii. 1852, 



p. 78, pi. ii. 

 Hydrophis gracilis, part., Dum. Sr Bibr. vii. p. 1352 (1854). 

 microcephala. Bum. ^ Bibr. t. c. p. 1356 ; Fischer, Abh. 



Naturw. Samb. iii. 1856, p. 52 ; Jan, Icon. G4n. 41, pi. v. fig. 2 



(1872). 

 gracilis, Oiinth. Bept. Brit. Ind. p. 373 (1864) ; Murray, Zool. 



Sind, p. 895 (1884) ; Bouleng. Faun. Ind., Kept. p. 404 (1890) ; 



Boettg. Ber. Offenb. Ver. Nat. 1892, p. 89. 

 guentheri (nan Theob.), Murray, I. c. p. 396, pi. — . 



Head very small, narrow ; body long, extremely slender ante- 

 riorly. Snout strongly projecting beyond the lower jaw; rostral 

 as deep as broad ; frontal very small, longer than broad, hardly as 

 long as its distance from the rostral ; one prse- and one postocular ; 

 a single anterior temporal, followed by a second equally large shield ; 

 six upper labials, third and fourth entering the eye ; two pairs of 

 small chin-shields, in contact with each other. 19 to 21 scales round 

 the neck, 29 to 33 round the body ; scales smooth, rhomboidal and 

 imbricate anteriorly, elsewhere hexagonal, juxtaposed, each with two 

 or more tubercles, which are feeble in the female and very strong in 

 the male. Ventrals distinct only anteriorly, very feebly enlarged or 

 split into two posteriorly, 225-297. Bluish black or greyish olive 

 above in the adult, with more or less distinct lighter cross-bands 

 anteriorly. Young with the head and neck black, the latter region 

 with hght transverse bands ; body with rhombic black cross-bands 

 continued to the beUy or subinterrupted on the sides ; or black, with 

 a series of elliptical vertical whitish spots on each side. 



Total length 1020 millim. ; tail 90. 



Coasts of Persia, India, and Burma ; Malay Archipelago. 



a. Yg. (V. 233). Jask, Persia. W. T. Blanford, Esq. 



b. $ (V. 252). Malabar. Ool. Beddome [C.]. 



c. S (V. 257). Ceylon E. W. H. Holdsworth, 



Esq. [0.]. 



