200 



MAJOR F. WALL, I.M.S., C.M.Z.S. 



Hydrophis cantoris, Boulgr. in Blanford, Fauna Ind. Rept. andBatrach., 1890, p. 405. 

 ,, ,, Sclater, List Snakes Ind. Mus., 1891, p. 64. (Except No. 8232). 



,, ,, Boulgr. Cat. Brit. Mus., 1896, iii, p. 281, and pi. xiv. 



,, ,, Wall in Mem. As. Soc. Bengal, 1906, p. 284. 



,, fasciatus, Sclater t loc. cit., p. 63, No. 8258. 



Distira gillespise, Boulgr. in Joum. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc, xii, p. 642, and plate. 

 ,, ,, Wall in Joum. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc, xv, p. 723 and fig. 



,, ,, Wall, loc cit., xvi, p. 311. 



B 

 Fig. 11. — Distira cantoris. 



Fi< 



ABC 

 12. — Distira gillespice. After Boulenger. 



This species is poorly represented in the British Museum, where there are but five 

 examples. These, however, include the type obtained by Cantor in Penang. I have 

 examined in all 22 specimens exclusive of the type of Mr. Boulenger 's Distira 

 gillespice ' which I consider identical. 



Distira gillespice (Boulenger) — This is known from a single large specimen from 

 Karachi. Mr. Boulenger finding grooves in the post-maxillary teeth, placed it with 

 his genus Distira, and made it a new species. I find, however, that typical specimens 

 of cantoris have grooves in these teeth contrary to Mr. Boulenger's belief, and in the 

 enormous specimen of cantoris presented by Rogers to the British Museum since the 

 publication of Mr. Boulenger's catalogue, they can be seen with the naked eye. 

 Cantoris is an extremely well differentiated member of the family, and marked off 

 from all the other species of this genus by one feature peculiar to itself,^., the contact 

 of the prefrontal with the third labial. Added to this it presents a combination of 

 characters which it shares with gracilis alone, viz., the shape of the commissure of the 

 mouth, the great length of the rostral, the contact of only two scales behind the fourth 

 infralabial, and the peculiar divided condition of the posterior ventrals. All of these 



Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hi.st. Soc, vol. xii, p. 642. 



