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Show 56 REPTILIA. TYPHLOPs, Schn.(l) The body covered with small imbricated scales like Anguis, with which they were long classed; the projecting muzzle furnished with plates;(2) tongue long and forked; the eye resembling a point hardly visible through the skin; the anus close to the very extremity of the body; one of the lungs four times larger than the other. They are small serpents, at the first glance resembling earth-worms; they are found in the hot portions of both continents. In some of them the head and body are of one uniform appearance, the former obtuse. They resemble pieces of slender twine.(3) Most of them have a depressed and obtuse muzzle, furnished before with several plates.( 4) The front of the muzzle in some is covered with a single large plate, the anterior edge of which is somewhat trenchant.(5) Finally, there is another whose muzzle is terminated by a little conical point, and which is entirely blind. Its posterior extremity is enveloped with an oval and horny shield.(6) In the second tribe, that of the SERPENTEs, or SERPENTs, properly so called, the tympanal bone or pedicle of the lower jaw is movable, and is itself always suspended to another bone, analogous to the mastoid process, attached to the cranium by muscles and ligaments, which allow it some motion. The branches of this jaw are not so closely united with each other, and those of the upper one are merely connected with the intermaxillary bone by ligaments, so that they can separate to a (1) 'Iu<P>-~»+, Tu<P>.lv11, blind, were the names of the Anguis (slow-worms) among the Greeks. Spix has substituted STENOSTOMA. (2) I could find no teeth in those I examined. (3) T. braminus, Nob. Ol' Rondos-talaloopam, Uussel, Serp. Carom. XLTII, or Eryx braminus, Daud. or Tortrix Russelii, Mcrr. · (4) .IJ.ng. reticulatus, Sch., phys. sacr. pl. dccxlvii, 4;-Typhlops septemstriatw, Schn.;-T. crocotatus, Id.;-T. leucorhous, Oppel., &.c. Seb. I, vi, 4, is a species of this subdivision. (5) .IJ.ng. lumbricali8, Lacep. II, pl. xx, Brown, Jam., XLIV, 1, Seb. I, l:uxvi, 2;-T. albifrons, Opp. In this genus, as in all others where the species are very similar, the latter have not been well determined; it is well worthy of a monograph. We are acquainted with at least twenty species. (6) Typhlops philippinus, Nob. Eight inches long, all blackish. The T. oz. yrhynchu8, Schn. must be closely allied to it. OPHIDIA. 57 greater or less extent, which enables these animals so to dilate their mouths as to swallow bodies larger than themselves. Their palatine arches participate in this facility of motion, and are armed with sharp pointed teeth which curve backwards, the most predominant and constant character of the tribe. Their trachea is very long, their heart very far back, and most of them have but one large lung with a vestige of another. Serpents are divided into venomous and non-venomous; and the former are subdivided into such as are venomous with several maxillary teeth, and those which are venomous with insulated fangs. In such as are not venomous, the branches of the upper jaw as well as those of the lower one, and the palatine arches, are every where furnished with fixed and solid teeth; there is then four equal rows of these teeth in the upper part of the mouth, and two below.(l) Those which have the mastoid processes comprized in the cranium, the orbit incomplete behind, and a thick, short tongue, still retain much similitude to the .!lmphisbrenm in the cylindrical form of their head and body, and were formerly united with Anguis on account of their small scales. They constitute the TonTRix, Oppel.(2) And are otherwise distinguished from the Anguina, even externally, inasmuch as the scales which form the range along the belly and under part of the tail are a little larger than the others, and the tailltself is extremely short. They have but one lung. (1) The common opinion respecting them is, that those which are destitute of the pierced fangs in front of the jaws are not venomous, but I have some reason to doubt its colTectness. They all have a maxillary gland, which is frequently very large,,and their back molars exhibit a. groove which may serve to convey some fluid. It is very certain that several of the species in which the back molars are very large, are accounted extremely venomous in the countries they inhabit, and that the experiments of Lalande and Lcschenanlt have served to confirm that opinion; their repetition is much to be desired. (2) They are the ANILius, Oken, the Ton.Q.UATn.rx, Gray, and the lnsu, Hemprich and Fitzinger. VoL. II.-H \ |