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. 



Obs. 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, Hydrophidae 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 ANGUIDJE. 



Head and body covered with smooth inibricate 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 modem systematists into two families, under the names of Saurophidae and Ophiosauridag, 

 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 Ophisaurus, Dartdin. 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. (Daud. Vol. 7, pi. 88.) Brownish or greenish, spotted with black. 



Fourteen row? of scales above, twelve below. Tail longer than the body. Length 2-3 feet. 



Western and Southern States. 



