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



I have examined 29 of this well-differentiated species. Eleven of these which I 

 examined in the Indian Museum, I omitted by an oversight to make any mention of in 

 my paper on the Sea Snakes in that Institution (Mem. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1906, 

 Vol. 1, No. 14). 



The costals in the neck and body are unusually numerous for members of this 

 genus, and the sublinguals are poorly developed or absent. One feature it possesses 

 which is peculiarly its own, and in fact is only seen in one other species of the sub- 

 family as an abnormal trait, viz., in Hydrus platurus. This feature concerns the 

 parietal shield which usually fails to touch the postocular. Unfortunately this is not 

 quite constant though constant enough to prove of considerable value in assisting 

 identification. 



I find the posterior maxillary teeth are grooved. 



Description. — The forebody is from one- third to two- thirds the extreme body 

 depth. Rostral, — the portion visible above is about half the internasal suture. 

 Prefrontals, — touch the second supralabial. Postoculars, — one or two, the 

 upper not touching the parietal on one or both sides (except in five examples). Tem- 

 porals ,— absent, replaced by small scales, two or more being superposed anteriorly 

 (one large anterior on one side in one specimen). Supralabials, — six to eight, the 

 first four or five entire, the rest divided. Inf r alabials, — four, the last in contact 

 with three or four scales behind ; the suture between the first shorter than that between 

 the anterior sublinguals when the latter are developed. Marginals , — one after the 

 third inf ralabial Sublingual s, — one or two pairs, one or both often ill-developed 

 or absent, the posterior when developed usually separated (in two examples in contact). 

 Costals, — anterior 36 to 45, midbody 42 to 53, posterior yj to 46, imbricate or sub- 

 imbricate anteriorly , imbricate, subimbricate, or juxtaposed posteriorly. Ventrals, — 

 -77 to 339 ; entire twice or rather less than twice as broad as the last costal row. 



Colour. — Bluish, or greyish-blue, darker dorsally, surrounded with from 35 to 58 

 dark purplish or bluish black bands, which are as broad or broader than the interspaces 

 at midcosta, complete in the young, but lose definition and become obscured or lost 

 ventrally with advancing age. In some adults these are very obscure. 



Habitat . — Coasts between Bombay and Penang. 



Distira ornata (Gray). 



Aturia ornata, Gray in Zool. Misc., 1842, p. 6i, and Cat., 1849, P- 45- 

 Chitulia inornata, Gray, Cat., p. 56. 

 ? Hydrophis schlegelii, Jan, Icon. Gen., 1872, 40, pi. vi, fig. 1. 



ornata, Gunther, Rept. Brit. Ind., 1864, p. 376, pi. xxv, fig. V. 

 ellioti, Gunther, loc. cit., p. 377, pi. xxv, fig. N. 

 ? ,, striatus, Jan, loc. cit., 40, pi. v, fig. 1. 



? ,, polyodontus, Jan., loc. cit., 41, pi. 1, fig. 1. 



Boulgr., Cat., 1896, iii, p. 274. 

 Distira ornata, Boulgr. in Blanford, Fauna Ind. Rept. and Batrach., 1890, p. 411. 

 ,, ,, Boulgr. Cat. Brit. Mus., 1896, iii, p. 290. 



