THE BLIND BURROWING SNAKES. 



55 



Family II. Glauconid^. 



These snakes are very similar in general structure to the 

 former family {TyphlopidcB), and their habits are more or less 

 alike. They are placed in a separate family because they are 

 anatomically somewhat different, viz. they have teeth in the lower 

 jaw only, the upper jaw being quite toothless. They possess four- 

 teen rows of scales round the body. The typhlops snakes, on the 

 contrary, have teeth in the upper jaw, but none in the lower 

 jaw, and they have at least eighteen rows of scales round their 

 bodies. The Glauconidce snakes are blunt-tailed like the former 

 family, and are, like their cousins, often popularly termed " Two- 



FiG. 25. — A life-size Glauconia or Blind Burrowing Snake [Glauconia nigricans). 



headed Snakes." People have occasionally brought snakes to 

 me in excitement, claiming to have discovered a snake with 

 a head at each end of the body. In all cases they turned 

 out to be Bhnd Burrowing Snakes. Like the former family, 

 the Glauconidce are all quite non-venomous, and are easy to 

 keep alive. These Burrowing Snakes are very useful in the 

 economy of Nature in keeping down the too rapid increase of 

 insect life. 



There are about thirty species of these snakes, six species of 

 which are known to inhabit South Africa. 



