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



that of typical cyanocincta. According to Mr. Boulenger the rostral shield in paciflcus 

 is a little narrower and the frontal a little longer than in cyanocincta, and there is a 

 single anterior temporal, but the remarks made on elegans, kingi, etc., apply equally 

 here. I cannot doubt that, had Mr. Boulenger recognised the grooved condition of 

 the posterior maxillary teeth in these species, he would long ago have included them 

 in his D . cyanocincta , as the varying scale characters on which they are separated from 

 each other are all to be found in one or other of the large series of 29 specimens 

 in the British Museum assigned to that species, e.g., the two anterior temporals of 

 kingi and the one of elegans and pacificus. 



semper i (Garman). — Not represented in the British Museum and known only 

 from Carman's description of a single specimen from Lake Taal, Luzon. Mr. 

 Boulenger includes this specimen in his genus Distira, but separates it in his 

 key under the points - {a) "Second pair of chin shields, if distinct, separated by 

 several scales." (b) "A single anterior temporal." Garm an' s description makes no 

 mention of the separation of the posterior chin shields, and there is no plate of the 

 specimen. Further, he says that the seventh labial is separated from the temporal by 

 a large pentagonal plate, which clearly must constitute what many consider an inferior 

 temporal shield. I cannot, therefore, separate this from cyanocincta. 



tuber culata (Anderson). — Of this there is no specimen in the British Museum, but 

 I have examined in the Indian Museum the type and only specimen which was des- 

 cribed by Anderson in 1871 , and have no hesitation in considering it cyanocincta. From 

 this species Mr Boulenger separates it by its single anterior temporal and the large 

 number of neck scales given as 38. This number is Anderson's count, close behind 

 the head where the rows are always too variable to give reliable results. The scales 

 counted two heads-lengths behind the head number 32, and at midbody 40, both of 

 which numbers accord with those usually found in specimens of cyanocincta ; and it 

 has already been pointed out that a single temporal shield is sometimes present 

 in members of that species. The head shields of Anderson's tuber culata are 

 granular and the body scales bi-tuberculate, as is so often the case in large specimens 

 of cyanocincta, e.g., the H. aspera of Gray incorporated by Mr. Boulenger in this species. 



A B 



Fig. 31. — Distira grandis. After Boulenger, Cat., vol. iii, pi. xvi. 



grandis (Boulenger). — This species rests on three specimens so named in the British 

 Museum. These, on careful examination, I cannot separate from the species cyanocincta. 

 The distinctions made use of in Mr. Boulenger' s key are that in grandis there is a 

 single anterior temporal shield only, the rostral is slightly narrower and the ventrals 



