482 ZOOLOGY. 



The bod}' is snake-like, being long and cylindrical ; there 

 are no feet and no tail, the vent being situated at the blunt 

 end of the body. The skin is smooth externally, with scales 

 embedded in it, but with scale-like transverse wrinkles. The 

 eyes are minute, covered by the skin. The species inhabit 

 the tropics of South America, Java, Ceylon, and live like 

 earthworms in holes in the damp earth, feeding on insect 

 larvae. They are large, growing several feet in length. 

 CceciUa Inmbricoides Daudin inhabits South America. Coe- 

 cilia compressicauda of Surinam is viviparous, the young 

 being born in water and possessing external gills which are 

 leaf-shaped sacs resting against the sides of the body ; when 

 the animal leaves the water they are absorbed, leaving a scar. 

 (Peters.) Siphonops Mexicana Dumeril and Bibron, is a 

 Mexican form. 



Order 5. Stegoceplidla. Here belong an order of extinct 

 Batrachians, with three suborders, Labyrinthodontia, Gano- 

 cephala, and Microsauria (Cope). In these forms the skulls 

 were either somewhat like those of the frogs, or the crania 

 were roofed in by solid flat bones, similar to those of ganoid 

 fishes. The vertebras were biconcave. The limbs of the 

 Labyrinthodonts were like those of the tailed Batrachians, of 

 small size and weak, compared with the great size of the 

 body. Von Meyer states that Archegosaurus possessed 

 branchial arches when young, and that probably other Laby- 

 rinthodonts resembled it in this respect. It had paddles 

 instead of feet, the head had an armor of plates, and the 

 body was covered with overlapping ganoid scales. It had 

 teeth like those of ganoid fishes ; it had a notochord, the 

 bodies of the vertebra? being neither bony nor cartilaginous. 

 Owen regards it as combining the characters of the perenni- 

 branchiate Amphibians and the Ganoid fishes. It was a 

 little over a metre (3 feet) in length. It is a representative 

 of the suborder Ganocephala. 



While the older text-books in the restorations of Lalnj- 

 rintliodon represented it as like a toad, with large legs and 

 tailess, it is now known that some of the gigantic prede- 

 cessors of the salamanders and tritons had long tails, while 

 others had long, cylindrical, snake-like bodies. Unlike exist- 



