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Family Uropeltid^. 



Head not distinct from, but smaller than the neck. Tail short, 

 truncated. Eyes small. Scales polished imbricate, the ventral 

 series somewhat enlarged. One pair only of frontals, upper labi- 

 als four. Cleft of the mouth moderate. Teeth in both jaws, but 

 none on the palate. No rudimentary pelvic limbs. Habits 

 subterraneous. Confined to Ceylon and Southern India. 



Rhinophis, Hemprich. 



Tail cylindrical, covered with smooth scales, and terminating 

 in a convex scabrous shield. Head conical, nasals separated by 

 the rostral which extends backwards. Eye in a single plate. 

 Body thickest anteriorly and with scale in 19 rows in the middle. 

 Head often displaced from its direct axis, as though " it had been 

 dislocated during some efiort of the snake to penetrate the soil." 

 Giinther. Viviparous. 



R. oxyrhynchus Schn, Peters Uropelt, p. 9, tab. 2, f. 1. 

 Daypatnaya Lankadivana, Kel. Prod. II, p. 16, 

 Mytilia uniniaculata, Gray. P. Z. S., 1858, p. 264. 

 Snout acutely pointed. Rostral nearly half as long as the 

 head. Keeled above. Caudal large, convex, extending to the 

 lower surface of the tail, as large as the heal. Ventrals 214-233, 

 not much larger than the adjoining scales. Males with 7 or 8, 

 females with 6 subcaudals, some simple, some bifid. Colour 

 brown, each scale with a pale margin. 



Grows to 15 inches, and is thickest anteriorly. 

 Inhabits Trincomali and the Kandyan District of Ceylon, 

 living 2 or 3 feet under ground, in white-ants' nests, and like 

 places. 



R. punctatus, Miill. Peters Uropelt, p. 12, tab. 2, f. 3. 



Pseudotyphlops oxyrhynchus, Schl. 



Snout acutely pointed. Rostral nearly half as long as the 



head, keeled above. Caudal large flat, extending to the lower 



surface of the tail. Ventrals 228 not much larger than the 



adjoining scales, 7 or 8 sub-caudals. Colour yellowish, each scale 



