208 SAURIA. 



Genus OPHIOMORUS. 



Closely resembling the genus Anguis, but distinguished 

 from it by several points of difference. The nostrils are 

 lateral, opening between two plates, the nasal and upper 

 nasal ; tongue flat, arrow-shaped, scaly, not velvety, feebly 

 notched at tip ; teeth conical, blunt, upright ; no teeth on 

 the palate, which has a longitudinal groove ; ear-openings 

 very small ; no legs ; tail long, rounded and pointed ; scales 

 smooth. Only one species kno-WTi. 



Ophiomorus miliaris. 



Ophiomorus miliaris, Dum. et Bib. vol. v. p. 799. 

 Anguis miliaris, Pallas, Zoog. Ross. As. vol. iii. p. 54. 

 Anguis punctatissimus. Bib. et Bory, Exped. Scien. Moree ; Hist. Nat. 

 Rep. p. 71. plate 11. fig. 5. 



Desceiptiox. — The head is conical ; muzzle narrow, rounded 

 at the end, a little longer than the lower jaw ; the ear- 

 opening is placed beneath the fourth or fifth scale of the 

 row which follows the upper labial plates ; the lower eyelid 

 is transparent ; the rostral plate large and triangular ; all 

 the scales are nearly equal in shape and size ; they are hexa- 

 gonal, but little enlarged, and arched behind, forming 

 eighteen longitudinal rows round the body. The upper parts 

 are tawny, the flanks grey, and the parts beneath dull white ; 

 along each longitudinal row of scales, all round the body, 

 is a series of very small black specks. 



Entire length, 6 inches ; tail, 3i inches. 



Found in the Morea and lq Southern Eussia, and also in 

 Algeria. 



Genus ABLEPHARUS. 



Only a rudiment of eyelid ; nostrils lateral, each opening 

 in a single i)late, the nasal; tongue flat, arrow-shaped, 

 scaly, notched at its tip ; teeth simple, conical ; no teeth on 



