THE BLIND SNAKES 2541 



By far the greater majority of the members of the suborder lay eggs of an 

 oblong form and inclosed in soft leathery shells, which are hatched by the natural 

 heat of the places where they are deposited. The pythons, however, incubate their 

 eggs, and at such periods develop a temperature a few degrees above that of the 

 surrounding air. On the other hand, both in the fresh-water and sea snakes the 

 eggs are retained within the body of the mother until they are hatched. 



THE; BLIND SNAKES 

 Families TTPHLOPID^ and 



The blind snakes, which are now arranged under two families, are small, worm- 

 like creatures, with cylindrical bodies and short heads and tails, entirely adapted 

 for a subterranean burrowing life. Lacking the large inferior transverse shields, 

 characterizing ordinary snakes, the blind snakes have the body and tail covered on 

 all sides with round overlapping scales of equal size on both the upper and lower 

 surfaces; while there are large shields on the fore part of the head, one of which on 

 each side covers the rudimentary eye. The cleft of the mouth, which is very small, 

 is placed on the lower surface of the head, and the jaws admit of scarcely any dila- 

 tation. An important point of difference from all the other members of the suborder 

 is that teeth are absent in either the upper or lower jaws, while in all cases larger 

 or smaller vestiges of the pelvis remain. The most important distinction is, how- 

 ever, to be found in the palate of the dried skull, which differs from that of all other 

 snakes in lacking the so-called transverse or transpalatine bone, which connects the 

 pterygoid or hindmost bone of the palate with the posterior extremity of the jaw- 

 bone or maxilla. In the first, or typical family of the blind snakes, the upper jaw, 

 which is but loosely attached to the rest of the skull, is furnished with teeth, while 

 the lower jaw is toothless, the pelvis being represented merely by a single bone on 

 each side. On the other hand, in the second family (Glauconiidce} while the upper 

 jaw is devoid of teeth, there are a few teeth in the lower one, the pelvis being rep- 

 resented by a pair of bones on each side, of which the two anterior ones meet in the 

 middle line. As regards their origin, it seems probable that the blind snakes have 

 little or no near relationship with the other members of the suborder to which they 

 belong. 



The typical blind snakes, or those belonging to the first of the two families, 

 are inhabitants of all the warmer regions of the globe, and are represented by 

 nearly a hundred species arranged under three genera. By far the greater num- 

 ber of these species belong to the genus Typhlops, which has a distribution coexten- 

 sive with that of the family; the other two genera, namely, Helminthophis with 

 five species, and Typhlophis with one, being confined to Central and South Amer- 

 ica. The second family contains only the single genus, Glauconia, of which there 

 are nearly thirty species, found in America, Africa, and Southwestern Asia. Very 

 little has been recorded in regard to the habits of these curious snakes, although 

 it is ascertained that they lay eggs, which are few in number, large in size, and 



