Zoological Miscellany, 
61 
VIII. Aturia. Ventral shields rather large, the two central series uni'- 
ted into a single broad six-sided plate ; scales all smooth. 
* Head and neck moderately thick ^ with 2 or ^post-ocular shields. 
1- Aturia ornata, Gray. Head and back slate-coloured, with a series of 
broad lozenge-shaped blackish cross hands ; under jaw, lower part of sides 
and belly whitish, with a few narrow indistinct bands on the sides : tail 
black, with rather broad whitish cross bands : the second upper labial plate 
very large, and the top of the fourth occupying the whole under edge of the 
eye. 
Inhabits Brit. Mus. 
The specimen has 2 regular post-oculars on one side and 3 irregular ones 
on the other. 
** Head small : neck very thin^ long., with 1 post-ocular shield. Scales all 
quite small. 
2. Aturia Lindsayi^ Gray. Hydrophis Lindsayii^ Gray, Griffith’s Anim. 
Kingd. Head, neck and tail black ; nape with 2 white spots: back of the 
neck and front part of the body with cross bands, which gradually be- 
come larger and form ovate spots on the sides, which are confluent on the 
middle, and narrower but longer on the hinder part of the body, forming 
only narrow bands across the tail : scales small. 
Inhabits China Brit. Mus. 
*** Head small : neck thin., long, ivith 1 anterior and 1 posterior ocular. 
Scales with a very minute central prominence. Between Aturia and Hy- 
drophis. 
3. Aturia spiralis. Hydrus spiralis, Shaw, iii. t. 125. Hydrophis mela- 
nura, Wagler, Amph. t. 3. Olive green, beneath yellow, with a series of 
round black spots, smallest on the middle of the body : back with rather 
narrow close black rings forming a line along the belly : tail black, with 3 
unequal red rings at the base : the fourth upper labial shield under the eye : 
in spirits pale yellowish ringed with brown, beneath whitish. 
Inhabits the Indian Ocean. Brit. Mus 
4. Aturia elegans. Whitish, in spirits : head and back with a cross series 
of broad, triangular, transverse, black spots, with a transverse series of small 
black spots between each of them ; sides with a series of larger black spots; 
under sides with ^ series of transverse black bands united together by a cen- 
tral black streak : tail black, with white ovate cross bands. 
Inhabits North Coast of Australia ; Port Essington, Mr. Gilbert. Brit, 
Mus. 
IX. Hydrophis. The two central series of the ventral shields united 
into a broad six-sided two-keeled plate : scales ovate, six-sided, keeled, the 
front ones longest and most keeled. 
a. Throat with small uniform scales : ventral shields small, like those of 
the neck : front pair of upper labial shields long, strap-shaped, extending up 
the side of the nasal shield, fourth pair under the eye ; the five front pair of 
the lower lip-shields long, large, with a series of large scales beneath them, third 
