EAST AFRICAN REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS 85 



I must assume that Boulenger was correct in saying that the male 

 of gracilis is spurred, for it is impossible to sex either of the spurless 

 specimens from Monrovia in the collection of the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology. Hallowell's monotype was a female. Boulenger 

 had four males from West Africa and one from Adjah Bippo, Gold 

 Coast. The only two males among the large series of gracilis typica 

 in ths Museum of Comparative Zoology collection are from the Gold 

 Coast and Bathurst, Gambia. 



Of spurless males, which I refer to gracilis etiennei, there are, in 

 addition to the paratypes from Banana, a single specimen from Kin- 

 shasa, which is near Leopoldville and not far from Banana, and two 

 large adults labeled "West Coast of Africa." 



How far the presence or absence of a spur is to be considered of 

 specific importance remains to be seen. I might remark, however, 

 that of 17 males which I collected at Morogoro, Tanganyika Terri- 

 tory, of C. dilejns dilepis, 2 are well spurred, 5 have the spur indi- 

 cated, while 10 are spurless. See also remarks under G. d. roperi. 



CHAMAELEON DILEPIS ROPERl (Boulenger) 



Chamaeleon roperi Boulenger, 1890, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 85, pi. 8, fig. 4 



(Kilifi, north of Mombasa, Kenj'a Colony). 

 Chamaeleo roperi Stejneger, 1893, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 16, p. 724. 



4 (U.S.N.M. 16741-2, 16745-6) Mt. Kilimanjaro, T. T. (Abbott) 



1898-99. 

 2 (U.S.N.M. 20103, 20108) Tana River, K. C. (Chanler) 1892. 

 2 (U.S.N.M. 22088-9) Jombeni Range, K. C. (Chanler) 1892. 

 2 (U.S.N.M. 40989, 42037) Kenya Colony. (Sm. Afr. Exped.) 1909. 



1 (U.S.N.M. 41931) Fort Hall, K. C. (Sm. Afr. Exped.) 1909. 



2 (U.S.N.M. 48565-6) Mtoto Andei, K. C- (Heller) 1911. 



Of these 13 specimens 5 are males and 8 are females. The largest 

 of the former measures 192 (100 + 92) mm. and of the latter 277 

 (142+135) mm. There seems to be little sexual difference in the 

 length of their tails; one female has lost hers at the root and the 

 stump has healed perfectly ; this is the only example of total tail loss 

 in these arboreal reptiles which I have seen. Omitting this individual 

 the rest of the series range from 0.43 to 0.48 of the total length with 

 an average of 0.46 for males and for females alike. 



I am not quite sure of the validity of C. d. roperi as distinct from 

 C. d. quilensis; the only appreciable difference is the absence of a 

 tarsal spur or process in the males of the former. This is not an age 

 character, as one of the types of roperi was a very fine adult male; 

 none of the males in the present series or in the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology exhibit spurs. As might be expected the series from 

 If akara, Tanganyika Territory, reported on by Barbour and Loveridge 

 in 1928 as C. d. quilensis are somewhat of intermediates with or 

 without tarsal processes. See also remarks under C. gracilis gracilis. 



