THE TWO-HEADED SNAKE. 
263 
uniform thickness of both extremities, and its power 
of moving backward or forward with equal facility, 
they designate as the Two-headed Snake. Natu- 
ralists distinguish it as the Typhlops lumhricalis^ 
the former term alluding to its apparent want of 
eyes, the latter intended to mark its resemblance, a 
rather slight one, to an earthworm. 
It is a pretty little animal, and perfectly harmless, 
though, with the common prejudice against serpenti- 
form reptiles, viewed with dread by the uneducated. 
It reaches to about thirteen inches in length, with 
an average thickness of one-fourth of an inch, the 
fore parts, however, being rather more slender than 
the middle of the body. The whole form is slightly 
depressed, the head especially ; the head is length- 
ened and covered with plates ; the tail is one-third 
of an inch long, terminating in a very minute horny 
nipple, on a shining round plate. When we hold 
the living animal in the hand, this terminal point of 
the tail is pressed with some force against the fingers, 
as if it were a weapon of ofience ; a slight pricking 
is produced, but it cannot pierce the human skin. 
The colour of the upper parts is a chaste bluish grey, 
that of the belly yellowish white ; the two colours 
abruptly divided, not, however, by a straight line, 
but by one of that form which in heraldry is techni- 
cally called embattled, but somewhat irregular. The 
whole surface is beautifully even and polished while 
alive, but after having been kept awhile in spirits, 
the edges of the minute scales become raised, and this 
smoothness is quite lost, the surface being rough 
both to the eye and the touch. The colours also 
