302 REPTILES. [Cuar. IX, 
Professor Peters of Berlin', shorter in the female than 
in the male. It does not terminate in a point as in 
other snakes, but is truncated obliquely, the abrupt 
surface of its extremity being either entirely flat, or 
more or less convex, and always covered with rough 
THE UROPELTIS PHILIPPINUS, 
keels. The reptile assists its own movements by press- 
ing the rough end to the ground, and from this peculiar 
form of the tail, the family has received the name of Uro- 
wpeltide, or “ Shield-tails.” Within a very recent period 
important additions have been made to this family, 
which now consists of four genera and eleven species. 
Those occurring in Ceylon are enumerated in the List 
1 Perens, De Serpentum familia Uropelt wm. Berol. 4. 1861. 
