SYNOPTIC CATALOGUE 



OF 



REPTILES. 



Order II. SNAKES (OPHIDIA). 



Mouth dilatable, all the facial bones moveable. Jaws toothed : 

 lower jaw-bones only united by ligaments in front. Eyes without 

 eyelids. External ears none. Tongue very long, retractile into a 

 sheath at its base ; the apex forked, veiy long, slender, tapering. 

 Limbs none or only rudimentary, in the form of spurs on the side of 

 the vent. (See Meyer, Acta Acad. Nat. Cur. xii.) The body of each 

 vertebra articulated by a convex facet, fitting into a concavity in 

 the front of the following one. The palatine arches mobile and 

 armed with acute recurved teeth. The windpipe is very long. One 

 of the lungs very large ; the other very small or rudimentary. The 

 heart in the hinder part of the body. The mastoid bone is detached 

 in all except the genus Tortrix of Oppell. 



Ophidia, Rajin. Anal. Nat. 76, 1815. Ophidii pars, Oppell, 

 Rept. 47. Ophidii, Gray, A7in. Phil. 1825, 204. Serpents propre- 

 ment dit, Cuvier, R. A. ii. 60; eel. 2, ii. 7,74. Serpentia gulones, 

 Merrem, Tent. 81. Ophidi, § 2, Bihron. Serpentes Theciglossi. 

 Wagler, Syst. Amph. 165. 



