SEA SNAKES IN THE INDIAN MUSEUM. 



295 



19. Enhydris curtus (Shaw). 



Enhydris curtus, Blgr. Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus. Vol. Ill, p. 300. 



,, ,, Sclater, List Snakes Ind. Mus. 1891, p. 62, No. 8241. 



,, ,, Wall in Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc. Vol. XVI, p. 310. 



,, hardwickii, Sclater, List Snakes Ind. Mus. 1891, p. 62, No. n 531. 





Habitat. 



Donor. 



Scales. 





Museum 

 No. 



60 



*"2 



g£ 



T3 



O 



"So 



"V c 

 03 <u 



-C O 



Ventrals. 



8241 



Puri 



Sir J. Fayrer 



30 



38? 



35 



171 



"53 1 



Mergui 



J. Anderson 











13593 



Ganjam coast ... 



? 



33? 



40? 



32 





13798 



Tri van drum 



Trivandrum Mus. (Exchanged) 



36 



4 1 



38 



201 



H547 



Borneo 



Sarawak Mus. ... 



36 



30? 



34 





Rostral, — portion seen above less than half the suture between the nasals. Prcefron- 

 tals touch the 2nd supralabial. Frontal, — sutures cannot be compared owing to the 

 parietals being usually broken up. Temporals, — two or three anterior. Marginals, — a 

 complete row behind the 2nd infralabial (rarely, however, the 4th infralabial touches the 

 labial margin). Infralabials, — 4 or 5. The 4th largest, and in contact with three or four 

 scales behind. Sublinguals poorly developed, so much so, that I do not consider they 

 deserve the name. Costals juxtaposed throughout ; the lowest three rows very distinctly 

 enlarged, and some specimens (males according to Boulenger) with the tubercles in these 

 enlarged rows remarkably spinose. 



An easy snake to recognise for several reasons. The enlarged ventral costals are 

 peculiar to this and E. hardwickii, and both have fewer ventrals than any others of the 

 sea snakes (except the genus Plat it r us). Again the parietals are usually broken up, but 

 in No. 1 153 1 this is not so, and it was probably this unusual feature which led Sclater to 

 include it among the E. hardwickii. The badly-developed sublinguals, and the juxta- 

 posed character of the costals, even anteriorly, are also features unusual among the sea 

 snakes. • 



