From Ditmars> REPTILES OF THE WORLD. 
YELLOW-HEADED WORM SNAKE (Leptotyphlops albifrons). Length: 8 inches. 
Range: Tropical America. 
ROUGH-TAILED EARTHSNAKES 
The rough-tailed earthsnakes, of which there are some forty species, 
differing from one another only as to scalation, burrow through the soil 
of damp mountain forests or of gardens. These eighteen-inch, blackish crea¬ 
tures are timid and slow-moving, repelling other subterranean animals with 
their shieldlike tail. They are valuable to farmers as eaters of insects. 
They bring forth their young alive. 
Leptotyphlops decima is the smallest known snake, attaining a length 
of no more than four inches. The leptotyphlopids, of whose thirty species 
this is one, have teeth only in the lower jaw; they approach the lizards in 
hone structure, in that they have pronounced pelvic girdles. They are 
known to lay eggs. Leptotyphlopids inhabit the tropical regions of America, 
Africa and southwestern Asia. 
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