34 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 
ORDER III. OPHIDIA. 
Body long, cylindrical, continuous with the tail, covered with plates or scales. Without feet. 
Jaws with numerous small teeth, and some with long poisonous fangs. Carnivorous. 
Ozs. This is an exceedingly numerous order, more than three hundred and fifty species 
having been enumerated from the tropical and temperate regions of the globe. In this State 
we have but sixteen to describe ; and of these, but two are venomous. ‘The order is divisible 
into several families, characterized by the arrangement and form of the scales, by their habitual 
residence on land or in the water, and by the presence or absence of poisonous fangs. Of the 
first family, Hydrophide or Water Serpents, characterized by a compressed head and body, 
and usually with poisonous fangs, we have none ; they inhabit principally the waters of India 
and the Indian ocean. A representative of the next family is found in the United States, but 
not in this State. 
FAMILY ANGUIDA:. 
Head and body covered with smooth imbricate scales, in distinct series. Bones of the shoul- 
der and pelvis generally existing in a rudimentary state, under the skin. Tongue short, 
bifid. Short teeth applied against the internal sides of the jaws. 
The various genera composing this family, with some already described, have been arranged 
by modern systematists into two families, under the names of Saurophide and Ophiosauride, 
which are sufficiently distinctive as pointing out their greater or less affinity with the Serpents 
proper, or the Sauria, and such as have hitherto been arranged under the preceding order. 
(EXTRA-LIMITAL.) 
Genus Opnisaurus, Daudin. Body cylindrical, rather robust. Ears visible externally. Scales 
square, smooth, thick, semi-imbricated; a longitudinal fold on each flank, formed by smaller 
scales, No vestiges of limbs. Minute sharp teeth in the jaws. Vent nearly medial, 
O. ventralis. Glass-snake. (Davv. Vol. 7, pl. 88.) Brownish or greenish, spotted with black. 
Fourteen rows of scales above, twelve below. Tail longer than the body. Length 2-3 feet. 
Western and Southern States. 
