58 
RECORDS OP THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 
Boulenger in London, Peters in Berlin, Schmidt in Hamburg, 
Schlegel in Leyden, and Jan in Milan : consequently all the type 
specimens are in Europe, and without direct reference to these 
the task of determination is no light one ; it is, however, a 
pity that such valuable material as the large collection of local 
Typldopidce contained in the Australian Museum should remain 
year after year uninvestigated, and in taking up the examination 
of these specimens I therefore propose to publish any points of 
interest with which I may meet, in the hope that it may be a 
step in the direction of placing our knowledge of the Australian 
Typldopidce more on a level with better worked families. 
The Collection in the Museum, although large, is, as might 
naturally be expected, somewhat local, being composed mainly of 
individuals collected in New South Wales, more particularly in 
the neighbourhood of Sydney. As only a few of the species 
described have been obtained from this Colony, any specimens 
from other parts of Australia with which we might be favored 
would be especially valuable. 
In this connection I may mention that the Trustees of the 
Macleay Museum, Sydney, have very kindly granted me per- 
mission to examine the extensive collection of Typldopidce 
formed by the late Hon. Sir William Macleay ; and Mr, C. W. 
de Vis has generously oliered to place in my hands, for investiga- 
tion, the examples contained in the Queensland Museum of which 
he is the Curator. 
Only one species has, I believe, been described in Australia, 
and it is therefore disappointing to have to point out its identity 
with a species previously described. 
In all the Typhlopidce, , so far as I am aware, the body scales 
are arranged in an even transverse series. In the “ Records of 
the Australian Museum,” Vol. ii., p. 23, Mr. J. Douglas Ogilby 
describes a species under the name of Typhlops curtus , and remarks 
that it has twenty-three series of scales round the middle of the 
body. This apparent departure from the usual conditions led me 
to re-examine the type specimen, when 1 found the number to be 
twenty -four. The species must therefore be referred to Typhlops 
ligatus , Peters,* with which it agrees in every particular. Peters 
obtained his specimen from Port Mackay. Ogilby’s type is from 
Walsh .River, Gulf of Carpentaria, and I have found in the 
Museum Collection other examples from Coomooboolaroo, Dawson 
River. Therefore, so far as is known, this species is confined to 
Queensland. 
[I have submitted the foregoing note to Mr. Ogilby, who 
entirely agrees with my remarks, and was not aware of Peters’ 
paper when he wrote his description.] 
* Monatsb. d. K. Akad. d. W. Berlin, 1879, p. 775, fig. 3. 
