TEE PRINCIPAL SPECIES OF POISONOUS SNAKES 137 



D. subcincta. — Trunk with 41 broad dark cross-bands, about as 

 broad as the interspaces, not extending downwards to the middle 

 of the side; a series' of small roundish, blackish spots along the 

 lower part of the sides. 



Total length, 1,070 millimetres ; tail 100. 



Habitat : Indian Ocean. 



Fig. 81.— Skull of Distira. 

 (After G. A. Boulenger, op. cit.) 



D. cyanocincta. — Greenish-olive above, with dark olive or black 

 cross-bars or annuli, broader on the back, and sometimes joined by 

 a black band along the belly, or yellowish, with a black vertebral 

 stripe and a few bars on the neck. 



Total length, 1,500 millimetres ; tail 140. 



Habitat : From the Persian Gulf and the ' coasts of India t(J 

 China, Japan, and Papuasia. 



D. jerdonii. — Olive above, yellowish on the belly, with black 

 cross-bands forming complete rings in young and half-grown 



