90 
AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 
Fischers’ Sea Snake. Platurus fisclieri. 
Platurus fischeri. Jan., Iconogr. Descript, in Dev. et Mag. Zool., 1859. Gunther, Dept, of 
Brit. India , j). 356. 
Scales in 19 rows. 
Ventrals, 232 to 241. 
Total length, 30 inches. 
No azygos shield between the posterior frontals ; scales of the front 
part of the trunk in nineteen longitudinal series; ventral shields 232-241. 
Trunk surrounded by from thirty-three to thirty-six black rings, which are 
broader than the interspaces. A black hand crosses the occiput, and 
extends forward over the vertical plate, and over the left jaw, but generally, 
it is not confluent with the next following ring. Upper part of the snout 
yellow, upper labials black. 
Habitat, Australian Seas, near New Guinea, the New Hebrides, &c. 
AIPTSTJRIJS, Laee'p. 
Body not much compressed, with trenchant belly, of moderate 
length. Shields of the head generally divided into more or less numerous 
smaller pieces ; normally only one pair of frontals; nostrils superior, each 
in a single nasal, the nasals being contiguous to each other. Scales of 
moderate size, imbricate, smooth or slightly tubercular; ventral shields 
well developed, with a longitudinal median ridge. Subcaudals broad, 
entire. 
The species of this genus appear rather to belong to the fauna of 
Polynesia and Australia than to that of British India; no instance of a 
specimen captured in the seas of the latter countries being on record. 
( Gunther.) 
Eel-like Sea Snake. Aipysurus cmgmlliformis. 
Thalassopis anguilliformia, Schmidt, Ahhandl. Natunv. Ilamh. II, p. 76, taf. 1. 
Aipysurus anguilliformia, Gunther, Dept, of Brit. India, p. 357. 
Scales in 17 rows. 
Abdominal, 142. 
Total length, 24 inches. 
