56 KEPTII-IA. 



Typhlops, Schn.(l) 



The body covered with small imbricated scales like Anguis, 

 with which they were long classedj the projecting muzzle fur- 

 nished with plates;(2) 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 first glance resembling 

 ' earth-worms; they are found in the hot portions of both continents. 



In some of them the head and body are of one uniform appear- 

 ance, the former obtuse. They resemble pieces of slender twine. (3) 



Most of them have a depressed and obtuse muzzle, furnished be- 

 fore with several plates. (4) 



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

 plate, the anterior edge of which is somewhat trenchant.(5) 



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.(6) 



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

 properly so called, the tympanal bone or pedicle of the lower 

 jaw is movable, and is itself always suspended to another bone, 

 analogous to the mastoid 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 in- 

 termaxillary bone by ligaments, so that they can separate to a 



(1) Ty<fxa4> f"'f>^iy>i, blind, were the names of the Annuls (slow-worms) among 

 the Greeks. Spix has substituted Stenostoma. 



(2) I could find no teeth in those I examined. 



(3) T. braminus, Nob. or Rondos-talaloopam, Russel, Serp. Corom. XLIII, or 

 Eryx braminus, Daud. or Tortrix liusselii, Mcrr. 



(4) -Mng. reticulatus, Sch., phys. sacr. pi. dccxlvii, 4; — Typhlops septemstriatus, 

 Schn. ; — T. crocotatus. Id. 5 — 7'. leucorhous, Oppcl., &c. Seb. I, vi, 4, is a species 

 of this subdivision. 



(5) Jlng. lumbricalis, Lacep. II, pi. xx. Brown, Jam., XLIV, 1, Seb. I, Ixxxvi, 

 2; — T. albifrons, 0pp. In this genus, as in all others where the species are very 

 similar, the latter have not been well determined; it is well worthy of a mono- 

 graph. We are acquainted with at least twenty species. 



(6) Typhlops pkillppinus, Nob. Eight inches long, all blaclcish. The T. ox- 

 yrhynchus, Schn. must be closelv allied to it. 



