Joseph Ewart

“ Trunk with thirty-five narrow, distant, black rings, extending round the belly, sometimes interrupted on the side and dilated on the back; head without markings in the adult; throat and belly whitish. This snake, of which we have examined two adult examples, six feet long, is found on the coast of the mainland of India, as well as in the Archipelago. It has been confounded with other species by all the previous herpetologists. ”

“ Nostril small, round, directed upwards, situated in a large nasal shield, which is subdivided behind the nostril. Sides of the head covered with keeled scales, two series of which are between the eye and the low upper labials. Scales much imbricate, strongly keeled, in from twenty-five to twenty-nine series; those in the lateral series have their tips directed obliquely downwards. ”

“ The specimen which I provisionally refer to this species has nineteen rows of smooth scales round the fore part of the trunk, in longitudinal series, and 235 ventrals. There is no azygos shield between the posterior frontals, and in all of these characters it agrees with this species. But on comparing the head with Gunther's drawing, I find that the anterior frontals in my specimen differ from it, in being long and pointed anteriorly, and considerably larger than the posterior pair, and in the vertical being proportionally larger than in P. Fischeri, and the occipitals larger and more pointed. ”

“ Frontal shields small, not much larger than præ-ocular; one post-ocular; five upper labial shields, the third and fourth of which enter the orbit, the last below the post-ocular; two or three large temporals on the side of each occipital, the anterior of which enters the labial margin behind the fifth labial shield. Two pairs of chin-shields, in contact with one another. Scales imbricate, large, higher than long, with apex slightly truncated; each scale with a strong keel; they are disposed in fifteen or seventeen series round the neck, and in nineteen or twenty-one in the middle of the body. ”

“ This is one of the commonest sea-snakes, occurring on the coasts of Ceylon, Madras, in the Bay of Bengal, in the East Indian Archipelago, and in the seas of China and Japan. It attains to a length of more than six feet. Old males have a remarkably thick and rounded tail. ”

“ The head too is wholly black, with the exception of a yellow band from the posterior margin of one eye to the other. The upper surface is olive green, and the sides and belly rich dark gamboge yellow, and the fifty-six rings are intensely bluish-black, and the scales generally have a very bright shining lustre. ”

“ Body elongated; thirty-four series of scales round the neck; forty round the middle of the body; scales almost smooth on the neck and anterior third of the body; two feeble keel-like tubercles, one before the other, very obscure, but more strongly developed on the two posterior thirds; ventrals twice the size of the adjoining scales, quite smooth, broken up here and there on the posterior live-eighths of the body. Two pairs of anal-shields, the central pair of moderate size, elongated ”

“ The body is somewhat compressed, the belly carinate; the tail flat and compressed, almost like a fish's fin; the nostrils vertical; the eyes small *** One (Enhydrina) was made to close its jaws on a fowl, and it killed it in seven minutes. Some hours after its death its jaws were forcibly closed on a fowl's thigh, and the bird died in four hours. ”

“ Scales in from twenty-three to twenty-five rows; those on the crown of the head and on the temples small, strongly carinated. Ventrals, 164-169; sub-caudals, 34-60. Grass green above, tail yellowish green; a more or less distinct yellowish line runs along the outer series of scales, and is sometimes absent. Lower parts greenish white. The general colour is usually green; sometimes there are large blackish spots on the sides; the lateral line is either well developed, white margined, with coral red below, or it is absent. Tail pale, ruddy above, usually equal to one-sixth the total length. ”