Habitat. — Opliiops elegans occurs over the greater part of Persia, 

 but is apparently absent from the Elburz Mountains, whilst in the 

 south it is found only between 1000 and 3000 m. altitude, according to 

 Blanford.* 



Var. MIZOLEPIS, Stoliczka. 



A single specimen from the low country S.W. of Kalabagh on the 

 Indus has been made the type of a distinct species, and even referred 

 to a separate genus on account of the presence of a single postnasal 

 instead of two. I have not seen the specimen, stated to have 34 scales 

 and plates round the body and 12 femoral pores on each side, but 

 there is nothing in the original description to warrant a separation 

 from 0. elegans, and I should have been inclined to regard the presence 

 of one postnasal instead of two as an individual peculiarity, such 

 as I have noted in 0. occidentalis, were it not that Blanford has 

 rediscovered the same form at Basra, Mesopotamia, where it is said to 

 occur in al)undance, and where the character appears to be fixed. f It 

 is also noteworthy that the only two specimens fi"om Haifa in Palestine 

 examined by Boettger are distinguished from all other Syrian in- 

 dividuals by the same character. In view of the constancy of the 

 single postnasal in individuals from certain localities, I retain 0. 

 mizolepis under a varietal name. 



I have examined two of Blanford' s Basra specimens as well as two 

 recently obtained at the same place by Col. Wall,+ also 2 from the 

 Felujah-Eamadieh Road (C. L. Boulenger), 9 from the banks of the 

 Euphrates, near Suk esh Shuyuk, and 2 from Amara, Mesopotamia, 

 received from Capt. P. A. Buxton ; except for the presence of three 

 shields bordering the nostril, I cannot distinguish them fi'om the var. 

 ehrenhergii. 



* The altitnde of 3000 m. is also reached on Mt. Hermon by the var. ehren- 

 hergii (Festa Collectiou in Turin Museum). 



t According to Blanford it occurs as a rare exception in S. Persia: " In two 

 specimens . . . the lower nasal is joined to the lower postnasal, so that the 

 nasal shields resemble those in Chondrophiops [= Gymnopsl or Ereniias." 



X Preserved in the Collection of the Bombay Natural History Society. 



