22 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



shield. Mental groove absent.* Neck and anterior body much 

 swollen, and knuckled. Body cylindrical ; short, moderate, or 

 long. Belly rounded. Tail very short, ending in a peculiar 

 shield upon the characters of which the genera are based. 



Identification. — The small head and swollen knuckled neck 

 and forebody immediately attract attention, and the peculiar 

 tail will further tend to indicate the family. The costals are 

 broader than long, the breadth of the last row about two- 

 thirds the ventrals, and the anal shield is twice or almost twice 

 the breadth of the ventrals. Further the eye being situated 

 in a single shield will proclaim the family. 



Habits. — Subt err est rial. All are burrowing snakes that live 

 for choice beneath the soil. The snout is used for burrowing, 

 and not being very well adapted for this purpose a loose soil is 

 chosen as quarters. On the surface they move slowly, and 

 with apparent difficulty, and they are so defenceless that they 

 fall an easy prey to any rapacious mammal, bird, or reptile. 

 They are very timid reptiles that make no attempt to bite 

 when handled. 



Food. — All those I know subsist upon earthworms exclu- 

 sively, and one rarely finds a specimen that has not fared 

 sumptuously, or without the intestine and cloaca being dis- 

 tended with semiliquid mud derived from their victims. 



Breeding. — All those Avhose habits I know are viviparous. 



Poison. — They are non-poisonous. 



Lepidosis. — The arrangement of the head shields is peculiar 

 to the family. Rostral : Short, moderate, or long, usually 

 compressed, and sometimes more or less keeled above ; touch- 

 ing four or six shields. Nasals: Single; sometimes meeting 

 behind the rostral. Internasals : Absent. Prefrontals : Two. 

 Frontal: Present. Supraoculars: Absent. Parietals : Two. 

 Loreal: Absent. Preeoculars : Absent. Postoculars : Absent. 

 Temporals : Absent. Supralabials : Four. Sublinguals : 

 Absent. Infralabials : Three or four. Costals : At midbody 

 all the rows are rectiform, broader than long, and with 

 broadly rounded posterior borders ; smooth. Vertebrals 

 not enlarged ; the breadth of the scales about four-fifths that 



* Except in Melanophidium. 



