i86 



THE SLENDER CECILIA. 



The legs are extremely small and feeble, and there are only two toes on each foot. 

 Its color is dark blackish gray above, and lighter beneath. Another species, the THREE- 

 TOED CONGO SNAKE (Murcenopsis triddctyld), is much like the common Congo Snake, 

 from which it may be distinguished by possessing three toes on each foot instead of 

 two. The length of both these creatures is from two to three feet. These two species 

 constitute the whole of the family to which they belong. 



AMONG these remarkable animals, the orders multiply themselves rapidly. The 

 Pseudophidia, or False Serpents, include some very curious species, whose position 

 remained long unsettled. There is but one family, and all its members have very long 

 and cylindrical bodies, no limbs, a very short tail, and a smooth, wrinkled skin, in which 

 are embedded a multitude of minute scales. The two worm-like creatures in the illus- 

 tration on page 187 afford good examples of this very remarkable family. 



CONGO SNAKE. Ampbiuma means. 



THE left-hand figure represents the WHITE-BELLIED CECILIA. The name Caecilia is 

 derived from a Latin word signifying blindness, and is given to the creature because the 

 eyes are always minute, and in some species are hidden under the skin. This species 

 inhabits Southern America, and, like the rest of its kin, burrows deeply under the 

 ground after the fashion of the earthworm, to which it bears so strong an external re- 

 semblance, preferring wet and marshy ground to dry soil. Its body is rather thick and 

 cylindrical, and is surrounded by about one hundred and fifty incomplete rings. The 

 muzzle is rounded and so is the tail. There are teeth in the jaws and on the palate, 

 all of which are short, strong, and conical ; the tongue has a curiously velvety feel to 

 the touch. Below each nostril there is a small pit, sometimes taken for a second nostril. 



The color of trie White-bellied Csecilia is blackish, marbled with white along the 

 under surface. 



THE right-hand figure represents the SLENDER OECILIA, so called on account of its 

 slight form. In this species the body is smooth throughout the greater part of its length, 

 but towards the tail the skin is gathered into fifteen circular folds pressed closely together, 



