SERPENTS. ^if 



Typiilops*, Schn., 



Have the body covered with small imbricated scales like Anguis, with 

 which they were long classed; the projecting muzzle furnished with 

 plates f; tongue long and forked; the eye resembling a point hardly 

 visible through the skin; the anus close to the very extremity of the 

 body ; one of the lungs four times larger than the other. They are small 

 Serpents, at the tirst glance resembling earth-worms; they are found in 

 tlie hot portions of bolli continents. 



In some of them the head and body are of one uniform appearance, 

 the former obtuse. They resemble pieces of slender twine J. 



Most of them have a depressed and obtuse muzzle, furnished before 

 with several plates §. 



The front of the muzzle in some is covered with a single large plate, 

 the anterior edge of which is somewhat trenchant ||, 



Finally, there is another whose muzzle is terminated by a little conical 

 point, and which is entirely blind. Its posterior extremity is enveloped 

 with an oval and horny shield^. 



In the second tribe, that of the Serpentes, or Serpents, properly so 

 called, the tympanal bone or pedicle of the lower jaw is moveable, and is 

 itself always suspended to another bone, which is analogous to the mas- 

 toidean process, attached to the cranium by muscles and ligaments, which 

 allow it some motion. The branches of this jaw are not so closely united 

 with each other, and those of the upper one are merely connected with 

 the intermaxillary bone by ligaments, so that they can separate to a greater 

 or less extent, which enables these animals so to dilate their mouths as to 

 swallow bodies larger than themselves. 



Their palatine arches participate in this facility of motion, and are 

 armed with sharp pointed teeth, which curve backwards, the most predo- 

 r.-iinant and constant character of the tribe. Their trachea is very long, 

 their heart very far back, and most of them have but one large lung with 

 a vestige of another. 



These Serpents are divided into venomous and non-venomous; and the 



* From the Greek word Tuphlops, or Tuphliiie, Wind, the names of the Anguis 

 (slow-worms) among the Greeks. Spix has substituted Stenostoma. 



+ I could find no teeth in those I examined. 



X T. hrammus, Cuv., or Rondos-talaloopam, Russel, Serp. Corom. XLIII, or Eryx 

 braminua, Daud., or Tortrix Russelii, Merr. 



§ Ang. reliculaius, Sch., Phys. Sacr. pi. dccxlvii, 4; — Typhlops septemstriatus, 

 Schn.; — T. crocotatus, Id.; — T. leucorhcus, Oppel, &c. Seb. T, vi, 4, is a species of 

 this subdivision. 



II yi7>g. luwhr'icaUs, Lacep. TI, pi. xx, Brown, Jam. XLIV, 1, Seb. I, Ixxxvi, 2; — 

 T. alhifrons, 0pp. In tliis genus, as in all others where the species are very similar, 

 the Litter have not been well determined; it is well worthy of a monograph. We 

 are acquainted with at least twenty species. 



II Typhlops philipphiiis, Cuv. Eight inches long, all blackish. The T. oxyrhyn- 

 chiis, ischn., must be closely allied to it. 



VOL. II. B 



