TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



contains only a few curious forms, which are confined to 

 the warmer regions of the globe. The order which con- 

 tains them is named Ophiomorpha (from their snake-like, 

 legless condition), or sometimes Apoda. They are so 

 strangely unlike the creatures hitherto described that no 

 one would at first suppose they could have any affinity 

 to frogs. 



They are creatures which are entirely destitute of 

 limbs and have much the appearance of earthworms. 

 They are long and slender, and have a soft and naked 

 skin marked by transverse, grooved rings. There are 

 about thirty species, arranged in eleven genera. North 



FIG. 32. 



THE CCECILIA. 



America, Australia, and the northern part of the Old 

 World, including all Europe, are entirely destitute of 

 them. Their headquarters lie in tropical America, where 

 one-and-twenty species have their home ; four hail from 

 tropical Africa, and a like number from the Indian 



region. 



It is not surprising that these animals were classed 

 with snakes by the earlier naturalists, and even by 

 Cuvier. In spite of their small head, their beicf utterly 

 deprived of limbs, and their elongated form, th<y have 

 after all one notable point in common with those large- 

 headed, long-limbed, and short-bodied creatures, the frogs. 

 This point in common is the absence of the tail, for their 

 elongated figure is due to the drawing out of the body, 

 not to the presence of a tail. 



