W'aite — Rex'ikw of Australian TvPni-OPinAE 



17 



Family TYPHLOPIDAE. 



Cranial bones solidly united: (no ectopterysoid^transpalatine, see p. 5); 

 [)tervs;oid not extendincr to tiie quadrate or the niaudil)le ; no supratemporal 

 (squamosal): prefrontal forming a suture with the nasal; maxillary loosely 

 attached, mo\al)le ; with a few teeth disposed transversely to the axis of the 

 skull: no teeth on the i>alate or mandilile : coronoid bone present; vestiges of 

 pehis, reduced to a single bone on each side. Body covered with uniform 

 cycloid scales; eyes beneath the translucent ocular shields. Tail short, ending 

 in a thorn ; ( )vii:)arous. 



(The family includes the genera Ihiiiiintliof^liis. Tvf^Iiliif^is and T\'|^llll1f^s. 

 The last-named only occurs in .\ustralia. ) 



TYPHLOPS Schneider. 



T\phl()ps (in part.) Schneid. Hist. Amphili. ii, iSoi, p. T^Tf). 



Typhlops ( )ppel. ( )rdnung. Rept. iSii, p. 54 { liinihiicalis ) . (For svnonomy see 



Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus. i. 1893, ]). 7, and Stejneger, lUill. U.S. 



Nat. Mus. 58. 1907. ]). 260). 



Rain/c. South-Eastern Euro])e, South ,\sia. South .\frica. Inter-tropical 

 .\merica. .Vustralia and Pohnesia: not found in Tasmania or New Zealand. 



TYPHLOPS GRYPUS sp. nov. 



Chart No. 5 and fig. 7. 



Nasal cleft to first labial ; scales in 18 rows. 



Head sub-acute, much produced ; snout very prominent, strongly hooked, 

 the extreme ti[) recur\ed, forming a distinct beak ; nostrils inferior, the cleft 

 close to the rostral which it touches in front of the nostril, dividing the nasal; 



Fij;. 7. Head of T. i^rypiis. 



rostr.-il slight!)- more than half the width of tlie head, widest in its front half, 

 reaching to the le\cl of the eyes, the lower part much liroader tiian long; preocular 



