37o 



A POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN 



SNAKES. 



Illustrated by Coloured Plates and Diagrams 



BY 



F. Wall, c.m.g., c.m.z.s., f.l.s., Lieut.-Colonel, i.m.s. 



Part XXIV (with Plate XXIV and Diagram.) 



(Continued from page 215 of Volume X.XIII.) 



Family — Typhlopid^e. 



(Greek " tuphlos, *' blind, "ops"=Eye.) 



In the scheme of ophidian classification laid down by Boulenger 

 in his catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum published 

 in 1896, the blind snakes are included in the two first of the nine 

 families, viz., Typhlopidas and GlauconiidaB. The species of these 

 two families are easily recognised from all other snakes by having 

 ventral shields that are not enlarged. The species of the former 

 family are peculiar in having four supralabials, whereas in the 

 latter there are only two, the 1st situated in front of, and the 2nd 

 behind the ocular shield (see figui-e A 4). 



The family Typhlopidas comprises the most degenerate of all 

 ophidian forms, their degeneracy being inferred from their eyes which 

 are purblind, their locomotion which above the surface of the ground 

 is very laboured, and their extremely defenceless condition, for 

 they have no weapon of offence or defence. The mouth being- 

 small, placed beneath the snout and having few and no opposable 

 teeth, is incapable of grasping anything but minute objects. Their 

 existence depends upon the subterranean life to which they have 

 adapted themselves, and b}^ which they escape annihilation from a 

 host of rapacious foes. The family embraces three genera (1) 

 Helminthophis including 5 species all inhabiting tropical America, 

 (2) Typhlops including over 100 species inhabiting parts of all five 

 Continents, (3) TypMophis represented by a single species inhabit- 

 ing Brazil and Guiana. 



Genus — Typhlops. 



The type of this genus is the S. American T. reticularis, describ- 

 ed by Schneider in 1801. The genus contains many of the most 

 diminutive of snakes, some only attaining to a length of but four 

 or five inches m their adult state. They live for the most part 

 beneath the soil, and subsist upon worms, grubs and insects. The 

 eye is situated beneath one or more shields, and is thus protected 



