SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE SNAKES OF EUROPE[[1]]
First Family: TYPHLOPIDÆ
Skull compact, with short, toothless lower jaw, without transverse bone; palatine and pterygoid reduced and toothless; maxillary small, loosely attached to lower surface of cranium and bearing a few small teeth; no supratemporal, the quadrate articulated to the proötic; a coronoid element in the lower jaw. Rudiments of a pelvic arch, reduced to a single bone. Body vermiform, covered with uniform cycloid scales; head small, not distinct from the body; mouth small, crescentic, inferior; eyes under the more or less transparent head-shields, sometimes entirely hidden. Worm-like, smooth, shiny snakes, of small or very small size, the largest measuring little over 2 feet, of subterranean habits, or found in rotten trees, under stones, or in the saw-dust of sawmills; rarely appearing on the surface except when the ground is soaked by heavy rains.
Inhabit the intertropical parts of the whole world, as well as South Africa, Southern Asia, and Southern Australia. One species occurs in South-Eastern Europe. About 120 species are known.
Genus TYPHLOPS, Schneider
Head with large shields; nostril in a single or divided nasal. Tail extremely short.
1. Typhlops vermicularis, Merrem
The Greek Blind-Snake
