138 UROPELTID&%, 
very small; prefrontals in contact with nasals. Mandible with 
coronoid bone. Both jaws toothed; teeth small and few. 
Palate usually toothless ; a few palatine teeth sometimes present 
in Melanophidium and Platyplectrurus, 
Skull of Silybura grandis, 
Head small and not distinct from neck ; eye small or very small, © 
with round pupil. Body cylindrical, rigid; tail very short, 
Burrowing Snakes of small size, restricted to Ceylon and the 
mountains of Peninsular India, or to the heavy forests at the 
immediate foot of the mountains, as far north as 19°. 
Synopsis of the Genera. 
I. Eye in the ocular shield; fourth labial in contact with the 
parietal. 
A. No mental groove. 
1. No supraocular shield, 
Tail obliquely truncated, ending in a large, rugose, circular or oval, 
fiat shield .:.)..5 55 ise) 40eue oeee 1. Uropeltis, p. 139. 
Tail ending in a large convex rugose shield, -which is neither trun- 
cated nor spinose at the end .... 2. Rhinophis, p. 140. 
