OPHIDIA. 



75 



the cranium is united to the first vertebra by two tubercles,, as is 

 also the case in the Batrachians. The maxillary bones cover the 

 orbit, which resembles a very small hole, and those of the temples 

 the temporal depression, so that the head above presents one con- 

 tinuous bony buckler; the hyoid bone, composed of three pairs of 

 arches, might induce us to suppose that at an early period it is fur- 

 nished with branchiae. The maxillary and palatine teeth are ar- 

 ranged on two concentric lines, as in Proteus; but they are fre- 

 quently sharp, and curved backwards, like those of Serpents, pro- 

 perly so styled. The nostrils open behind the palate, and as the 

 tympanal bone is fixed along with those that compose the cranial 

 shield, there is no movable pedicle to the lower jaw. 



The auricle of the heart is not sufficiently divided in these animals 

 to induce us to consider it as double, but their second lung is as 

 small as in other serpents; the liver is divided into a great number 

 of transverse lamellae. Vegetable matters, earth and sand are found 

 in their intestines. The only small bone contained in the ear is a 

 little plate on the fenestra ovalis, as in the Salamanders. 



Some of them have an obtuse muzzle, relaxed skin, deep wrinkles, 

 and two small cilia near the nostrils. Such is 



Cxcilia annulata, Spix, xxvii, 1. Blackish, with eighty odd 

 plicae marked with white circles; teeth conical. Found in 

 Brazil, where it lives in marshes, several feet beneath the sur- 

 face. 



C. tentaculafa, L.; Amen. Acad. I, xvii, 1. One hundred and 



thirty odd plicae, every other pair of which, particularly near 



the tail, does not completely encircle the body. It is black, 



marbled with white on the belly.(l) 



Others have a much greater number of plicae, or rather of close, 



transverse striae. 



Cxc. ghttinosn, L.; Seb. XXV, 2; and Mus. Ad. Fred. IV, 

 1, is of that number, having three hundred and fifty plicae, 

 which unite beneath at an acute angle. It is blackish, with a 

 longitudinal yellowish band along each flank. Found in Cey- 

 lon.(2) 



(1) This C3ecilia is not more tentaculated than others of its subdivision. Add, 

 C. albiventris, Daud. Vll, xcii, 1; if it is not the same as the tentaculatu; C. inter- 

 rupta, Cuv. in which the white lines of the rings do not correspond with each other 

 beneath; C. rostrata, Cuv. with a more pointed muzzle, and no white edges to 

 the rings. It is hard to say why Spix attributes upwards of two hundred phcse to 

 his annulata; his figure shows but about eighty. 



(2) It is certainly from Ceylon, although Daudin places its habitat in America; 

 as we have received it from the former country through the politeness of M. Les- 

 chenault; a closely aUied species, it is true, inhabits the latter Csec. bivitta/a, Cuv. 



