224 



MA JOE F. WALL, I.M.S., C.M.Z.S. 



(b) No costal spots. A common form seen in examples from the Persian Gulf 

 to China. Comparable to variety A(6) of spiralis. 



E. A continuous, black, dorsal band (see fig. 35 on plate viii), a rare form — the 

 phipsoni of Murray known from a single specimen from Bombay. Completely 

 analogous to variety inornala of ornata, and jayakari of viperina. 



Habitat. — From Persian Gulf to North Australia. With the exception of two 

 grandis, none that I have seen are from the Malayan Archipelago. 



Distira nigrocincta (Daudin, nee Jan, nee Cantor). 



Hydrophis nigrocinctus, Daud., Rept., 1803, vii, p. 380. 

 ? ,, „ Schlegel, Phys. Serp., 1837, xviii, figs. 11 and 12. 



Gray, Cat., 1849, p. 51. 



Giinther, Rept. Brit. Ind., 1864, p. 368, pi. xxv, fig. L. 

 ,, ,, Fayrer, Thanatoph. Ind., 1874, pi. xxv. 



„ ,, Ewart, Pois. Snakes Ind., 1878, pi. 19, fig. 2. 



Bonlgr. in Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Rept. and Batrach., 

 1890, p. 400. 

 ,, ,, Sclater, List Snakes Ind. Mus., 1891, p. 63, Nos. 8239 



and 8240. 

 ,, Boulgr., Cat. Brit. Mus., 1896, iii, p. 277. 



„ ,, Wall in Mem. As. Soc. Bengal, 1906, p. 281. 



? Enhydris nigrocinctus, Merrem., Tent., 1820, p. 140. 

 Distira lapemidoides, Sclater, List Snakes Ind. Mus., 1891, p. 66, No. 8235. 



,, cyanocincta, Wall and Evans in Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc., xiii, p. 364. 

 hendersonii, Boitlgr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc, xiv, p. 719, and 

 plate. 

 ,, ,, Wall in Mem. As. Soc. Bengal, 1906, p. 294. 



,, ,, saravacensis, Boulgr. in Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1900, p. 184, 



and fig. 2, pi. xiv. 



ABC 

 Fig. 39. — Distira nigrocincta. After Giinther, Rept. Brit. Ind., pi. xxv, fig. L. 



I have examined eight examples, not including the Distira hendersonii (Boulenger), 

 which I consider the same species. 



One of General Hardwicke's specimens in the British Museum, labelled nigrocinctus , 

 I consider misplaced. It is in reality a cyanocincta (Daudin). In Bleeker's specimen 

 I could distinctly discern grooves in the post-maxillary teeth, and it agrees, therefore, 

 in this respect, with examples I have examined in the Indian Museum and my own 



