BLIND-WORM. 43 



ones have wholly disappeared, and are found in a rudi- 

 mentary state under the integument, the posterior ones 

 constituting only small undivided processes. These also 

 being removed, the Ophidian form of the present genus, 

 and those of Tortrix, Typhlops, and others, with all the 

 Amphisbanida, succeed, in which the bones of the shoul- 

 der, the sternum, and the pelvis exist in a more or less 

 rudimentary condition ; and lead us towards the true 

 Snakes, in which all these parts are lost excepting the 

 rudiment of a posterior extremity, which in the Boa ap- 

 pears externally in the form of a small horny hook, or 

 holder, on each side of the vent. In the Serpents, the 

 gape, too, has assumed its extreme power of extension, 

 from the bones of the jaws and other parts of the face 

 being separate ; and in most of them the scales, which in 

 the former groups were similar on the upper and under 

 parts of the body and tail, are small and imbricated above, 

 whilst beneath they assume the form of broad transverse 

 plates. Such is a very brief account of the beautiful 

 gradations by which these reptiles pass from the true or 

 typical Saurian to the Ophidian form ; and although, per- 

 haps, it would be more consistent with analogy to consider, 

 with Merrem, the whole of the scaled Reptilia as consti- 

 tuting one great order, yet the union of this interesting 

 intermediate group, to which Mr. Gray has given the 

 name Saurophidia from that relation, is a legitimate and 

 important improvement upon the confusion in which they 

 were left by Cuvier, who separated animals even of the 

 same family, and placed some in his order " Sauriens" 

 and others in his " Oplhidien§r 



The structure of the common Slow-worm, then, necessa- 

 rily removes it from the Snakes, to which, indeed, it bears 

 a less close affinity than to some of the Saurians. This 



