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



and in midbody the number (34), though low, agrees with Anderson's specimens in the 

 British Museum labelled cyanocincta from Mergui, in which they are 33 to 34. The 

 affinities of the specimen are so extremely close to cyanocincta that I cannot believe 

 it is distinct. 



A 

 Fig 34. — Distira frontalis ( x ij). After Jan, livr. 39, pi. v, fig. 2. 



frontalis (Jan). — This name was given by Jan to a single specimen which he 

 described and figured ; and Mr. Boulenger similarly names one specimen in the British 

 Museum collection. The two were probably considered identical on their common 

 possession of one unusual feature, viz., that the anterior angle of the frontal shield 

 projects, and separates the praefrontal pair. This, however, is clearly an abnormality, 

 for I have seen the same condition in more than one specimen of vipenna and occasion- 

 ally in other species ; and Mr. Boulenger notes that it occurs in the type-specimen of 

 brookii (Catalogue, vol. iii, p. 283) , a gravid female, though absent in her fully developed 

 young. Apart from this abnormality the British Museum specimen appears to me to 

 be an almost typical ornata (Gray), and the posterior maxillary teeth being grooved, 

 I include it in that species. Jan's specimen, however, I am unable to separate from 

 members of the species cyanocincta (Daudin). It does not accord with Mr. Boulenger's 

 description of H. frontalis on page 276 of the Catalogue in the following particulars: 

 The neck is not very slender, being about three-fifths the body depth ; the labials are 

 eight, with the third, fourth and fifth touching the eye; both pairs of chin shieMs are 

 well-developed and the posterior are only just separated. I count 30 scales in the 

 anterior body. Though unable to verify the presence of grooves in the teeth, it 

 appears to me probable that this will prove to be a cyanocincta aberrant in the division 

 of the first supralabial, the division of the frontal and the separation of the prefron- 

 tals, all of which conditions are to be met with as abnormalities in certain individuals 

 of other species. 



Description. — This is based on 81 examples, inclusive of 12 considered distinct 

 by Professor Boulenger, which I think the same. The body anteriorly is from one- third 

 to two- thirds the greatest depth, probably less, my notes on this point being very 

 incomplete ; and I have no record of the measurements in a gravid female. 



Rostral, — the portion visible above is less than two-thirds the internasal suture. 

 Praef r on tals, — touch the second supralabial. (Two exceptions and on one side 

 only . ) Postocular s, — two usually. (In eleven examples only one, and in five of 



