74 REPTILIA. 



table; all the scales on the body are equal, small, and arranged close 

 to each other in hexagons. 



The species most known, jinguis platuriis, L.j Hydrus bicolor, 

 Schn.; Seb. II, Ixxvii, 2', Russel, xli, is black above, yellow be- 

 neath. Although excessively venomous, it is eaten at Otaheite. 

 To these two subgenera I have added, 



Chersydrus, Cuv.(l) 



The whole body as well as the head covered with small scales. 

 Such is 



Mcrochordus fasciatus, Shaw; the Oular-limpS; Rept. pi. 

 cxxx. A very venomous serpent, found on the bottom of rivers 

 in Java.(2) 



FAMILY III. 

 NUDA. 



Our third and last family of the Ophidians, that of the 

 Naked Serpents, consists of but one very singular genus, 

 which several naturalists have thought fit to refer to the 

 Batrachians, although we are ignorant as to the fact of its 

 undergoing any metamorphosis. It is the > 



CiECiLiA, Lin. (3) 



So called because its eyes, excessively small, are nearly hidden be- 

 neath the skin, and sometimes are wanting. The skin is smooth, 

 viscous and furrowed by annular plaits or wrinkles; it is apparently 

 naked, but on dissection we find in its thickness, perfectly formed 

 though delicate scales, regularly arranged in several transverse 

 rows between the folds of the skin.(4) The head is depressed; the 

 anus round and nearly at the end of the body; the ribs much too 

 short to surround the trunk: the articulation of the bodies of their 

 vertebrae is effected by hollow conical facets filled with a gelatinous 

 cartilage, as in Fishes and in some of the last of the Batrachians; 



(1) X6|cro<rgof, the Greek name of the Col. natrix. 



(2) The Hydrus granulatus, Schn. must be. closely allied to it. 



N.B. The H. caspius, enhydris, rhynchops, piscator and palustris, Schn. are 

 mere common Vipers and Colubers. His Hydrus colubrinus is the Banded Pla- 

 turus. 



(3) Caedlia, from Tv<^Km-{, is the Latin name of the Slow-worm (Orvet), which in 

 several parts of Europe is still called blind, although it has very fine eyes. 



(4) A fact I have ascertained in the C glutinosa, the White-bellied Caecilia, 54C. 



