AUSTKALIAN SNAKES. 
05 
HYDEOPHIS. 
Hydropliis, sp. Baud. 
Posterior part of the hocly strongly compressed; head short, or of 
moderate length, shielded above; only one pair of frontals; nostrils 
superior, in a single nasal shield, both nasals being contiguous to each 
other; scales imbricate or not without polish, generally with a tubercle 
or with a keel; ventral shields very narrow, or quite rudimentary, or entirely 
absent; lower jaw without notch in front. 
Stokes’ Sea Snake. Hydropliis stokesii. 
(Plate XII, fig. 17.) 
Hydras stokesii, Gray in Stokes' Australia , I, p. 502, tab. 3. 
Hydropliis stokesii, Gunther, Rept. of Brit. India , p. 363. 
Total length, 61 inches. 
14 inches high. 
10 inches in circumference. 
Head rather short and broad; body stout. Two or three labial 
shields below the eye; two postoculars; chin covered with scales, with no 
other shields hut the mental and labials. Porty-three to forty-seven series 
of scales round the neck. Scales rather small, much imbricated, keeled, 
each keel being interrupted in the middle. The ventral shields are replaced 
by two series of smooth scales, not larger than the scales of the adjoining 
series, the scales of the two ventral series being arranged opposite to each 
other. Young specimens and adult males have broad black cross bands, 
either extending over the back only or entirely surrounding the body. 
The interspaces between them are generally again divided by a narrow 
transverse black streak or series of black spots. Old females are almost 
entirely uniformly greyish above and whitish below. 
Habitat, Northern Coast of Australia. 
Belcher’s Sea Snake. Hydropliis belcheri. 
Aturia belcheri, Gray, Viper. Snakes, B. M., p. 46. 
Hydropliis belcheri, Gunther, Re pit. Brit. India, p. 364. 
Scales in 25 rows (near neck). 
Abdominals, 317. 
Total length, 34 inches. 
Head, 4 inch. 
Tail, 34 inches. 
