96 AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 
Head of moderate width and size; neck not very slender, body of 
moderate length. Rostral shield nearly as broad as long; only the fourth 
upper labial forms the lower part of the orbit; two postoculars ; three tem- 
poral shields on the side of each occipital. Two pairs of chin-shields, which 
are in contact with one another. Twenty-five series of scales round the neck» 
scales but little imbricated, subtruncated behind, and those on the highest 
part of the body, as broad as long, each with a short keel. Ventrals, 317 
in number, more than twice as broad as the scales of the adjoining series, 
without keel or tubercle. Four large anal shields. The tail terminates in 
a very larged forked scale. Back brownish olive, with blackish cross 
bands, separated by yellowish transverse streaks anteriorly ; these bands 
become very indistinct towards the middle of the length of the animal. 
Head and throat blackish; a horse-shoe-like yellowish mark on the crown 
of the head, resting with its convex anterior portion on the frontal shields. 
Sides and belly yellowish. 
Habitat, coast of New Guinea. 
Euecant Sea Snake. Hydrophis elegans. 
(Plate XTI, figs. 16, 16a, 16b.) 
Hydrophis doliata, Gray, Zool, Mise., p. 62, and Viper Snakes, p. 51. 
Aturia elegans, Gray, Zool. Misc., p. 61. 
Hydrophis elegans, Giinther, Rept. Brit. India, p. 369. 
Scales in 28 rows. 
Abdominals, 330 to 415. 
Anal plates, 6. ' 
Total length, 50 inches. 
Head, 7 lines. 
Tail, 34 inches. 
Head rather small and narrow; neck slender, less than one-third of 
the total length; body elongate. Rostral shield as high as, or higher than, 
broad ; the labial below the eye is split into two or three pieces; two post- 
oculars. Two pairs of chin shields, the anterior of which are in contact 
with each other. Twenty-eight series of scales round the neck. Scales 
imbricate, keeled, rhombic, those on the highest part of the body about as 
high as long. Ventrals twice or thrice as broad as the scales of the 
adjoining series, bitubercular, and from 330-415 in number. Six anal shields. 
Trunk with from forty-two to forty-eight black or blackish olive cross 
