SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE 

 SNAKES OF EUROPE- 

 First Family: TYPHLOPID.E 



SKULL compact, with short, toothless lower jaw, 

 without transverse bone ; palatine and ptery- 

 goid reduced and toothless ; maxillary small, loosely 

 attached to lower surface of cranium and bearing a 

 few small teeth ; no supratemporal, the quadrate 

 articulated to the prootic ; a coronoid element in the 

 lower jaw. Rudiments of a pelvic arch, reduced to 

 a single bone. Body vermiform, covered with uniform 

 cycloid scales ; head small, not distinct from the 

 body ; mouth small, crescentic, inferior ; eyes under 

 the more or less transparent head-shields, sometimes 

 entirely hidden. Worm-like, smooth, shiny snakes, 

 of small or very small size, the largest measuring 

 little over 2 feet, of subterranean habits, or found in 

 rotten trees, under stones, or in the saw-dust of saw- 

 mills ; rarely appearing on the surface except when 

 the ground is soaked by heavy rains. 



Inhabit the intertropical parts of the whole world, 

 as well as South Africa, Southern Asia, and South- 



* For a key to the identification of the species, see above, 

 p. 22. 



M3 



