72 LACERTIDE. 
12. OPHIOPS. 
Ophiops, Ménétr. Cat. Rais. p. 63; Dum. & Bibr. v. p. 257; Gray, 
Cat. p. 44; Giinth. Rept. Brit. Ind. p. 72; Strauch, Mél. Biol. Ac. 
St. Pétersb. vi. 1867, p. 408; Schreib. Herp. Eur. p. 369; Lataste, 
Ann. Mus. Genov. (2) ii. 1885, p. 126. 
Amystes, Ehrenberg, Arch. f. Nat. 1835, ii. p.1. 
Pseudophiops, Jerdon, Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1870, p. 71. 
Gymnops (non Cuv.), Blanf. Journ, As. Soc. Beng. xxxix. 1870, 
. 861, 
Gieciroptings Blanf. Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xlii. 1878, p. 144, 
Head-shields normal. Nostril pierced between two to four nasals. 
Eyelids immovable, the lower united with the upper, with a very 
large transparent disk. Collar absent or very indistinct. Dorsal 
scales imbricate and strongly keeled. Ventral plates imbricate, 
smooth. Digits compressed, with sharply keeled scales inferiorly. 
Femoral pores. Tail cylindrical. 
North Africa, Turkey, South-western Asia, India. 
All preceding authors have described the Lizards of this genus as 
deprived of eyelids, or as having the eyelids in a rudimentary con- 
dition. This is erroneous, and it is really surprising that herpeto- 
logists who have had an opportunity of comparing Ophiops with 
Cabrita, which latter is said to differ by having ‘“ well-developed 
eyelids,” should not have seen that the only difference between the 
two genera is that the slit which separates the lower from the upper 
eyelid in Cabrita has disappeared in Ophiops. What was supposed 
to be the exposed eye of Ophiops is the transparent disk of the 
lower Jid, which is neither more nor less developed than in Cadrita. 
This window, as it may be called, in the eyelid is, for Lizards living 
in the sand, a useful adaptation; the larger the transparent disk, 
the less necessity for the animal of exposing its eye. Hence the 
lower lid is scarcely movable in Cabrita, although distinct from the 
upper ; as a step further, Ophiops has the eye protected permanently 
by the lower eyelid, the border of which is coalesced with the rudi- 
mentary upper lid. These remarks apply also to the genus Able- 
pharus in the following family, which stands in the same relation 
to the species of Zygosoma with large transparent palpebral disk 
(ZL. entrecasteauan and others) as Ophiops to Cabrita. 
Synopsis of the Species. 
I. Snout moderate, feebly depressed. 
A. Upper head-shields strongly rugose, keeled and striated. 
A single frontonasal .............. weee Li jerdonit, p. 73. 
Two or three frontonasals .............. 2, beddomii, p. 74. 
