. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. 333 NATUSAL HISTORY. a fold in the throat which permits of the extension of the skin. The eyes are very small. These Uroijeltidse, having such remarkable Saurian affinities, live in the East Indies and in Ceylon, and it is necessary to dig to a depth of four feet to obtain them. SUB-ORDER TYPHLOPID^.—THE BLIND SNAKES. These are small Snakes, and are by no means readily distinguished by an ordinary observer from the Sheltopusiks, Blind-worms, Amphisbajnse, and other Lacertilia with Snake-like bodies, and more or less imperfect limbs. They l
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. 333 NATUSAL HISTORY. a fold in the throat which permits of the extension of the skin. The eyes are very small. These Uroijeltidse, having such remarkable Saurian affinities, live in the East Indies and in Ceylon, and it is necessary to dig to a depth of four feet to obtain them. SUB-ORDER TYPHLOPID^.—THE BLIND SNAKES. These are small Snakes, and are by no means readily distinguished by an ordinary observer from the Sheltopusiks, Blind-worms, Amphisbajnse, and other Lacertilia with Snake-like bodies, and more or less imperfect limbs. They lead a life like that of the burrowing Anguis (p. 297), their bodies arii vermiform, cylindrical, and rigid, and there are the relics of hind limbs in the form of small i-od- shaped bones. They are not blind, for the eyes are present, although small, but they are covered by tin; ocular and pre-ocular shields, which are more or less transparent. The teeth are found in tin; Mpper an(;l lower jaw according to the genera. These Snakes are allied to the Lizards in that they have the long axes of the palatine bones transverse, and there is no transverse bone as in the Snakes proper. Moreover, the pteiygoids are not connected with the quadrate bone. They have not the power of enlarging their narrow mouth, and they feed on small worms and insects. They are divided into two families: in one, the Catodontes, there are teeth only on the lower jaw, which Ls shorter than the upper; * 'n\ the other, the Epanodontes, the teeth are on the upper jaw, and the extremity of the muzzle is truncate and covered with large scales, the nostrils being situated laterally on the anterior margin. Typhlops lumhricalis, of the Antilles, is the type. Some other small Blind Snakes, with the rudiments of hind extremities hidden beneath the skin, and a small eye covei-ed by the ocular and pre-ocular shields, are in- habitants of almost every part of the Tropics, and about eight species occur in British Indi:i,
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