EAST AFRICAN REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS 89 



variable reptiles the earlier we shall arrive at a better understanding 

 as to their distribution. 



Boulenger (1892) was undoubtedly correct in assuming that both 

 hohnelii and leiJcipiensis were one and the same thing but incorrect in 

 relegating them to hitaeniatus, of which he considered that they were 

 fully adult males. More recently (1912) Sternfeld has named 

 another race from Sirgoit (Sirgoi) on the Uasin Gishu Plateau near 

 Mount Elgon; on geographic grounds I have long suspected that his 

 monotype was nothing more than a slightly aberrant individual; 

 fortunately in his paper on the races of hitaeniatus he gives very 

 excellent illustrations of the races including the type of hergeri. 

 One can match its steeply sloping casque as well as the more gently 

 sloping one of hohnelii in plenty of specimens of the National Collec- 

 tion series which also provide examples of low and high crests and 

 many variations of the arrangement of the spines which go to form 

 those crests. From the Wambugu series one can select specimens 

 with rostral processes (knoblike swellings) as small as the type of 

 hohnelii or as large as in the type of hergeri. Sternfeld describes the 

 rostral process as "budlike" and from the illustration it rather looks 

 as if it were descaled; if this is the case it is almost certainly the result 

 of an injury and I should be inclined to postulate the theory that the 

 type was kept a captive, during which time it rubbed its snout 

 against its prison walls in inanely persistent efforts to escape. 



Without any selection apart from sex, 25 males and an equal 

 number of females were taken for measurement; of these the largest 

 male measured 200 (108 + 92) mm. and the largest female 194 (99 + 95) 

 mm. The tails of these males ranged from 0.46 to 0.52 of the total 

 length, with an average of 0.512; in the females the range was from 

 0.43 to 0.51, with an average of 0.473; in connection with similar 

 measurements taken for hitaeniatus typica it is worthy of note that 

 two females, or 8 per cent, and six males, or 24 per cent, have the 

 tails definitely longer than the head and body, while three additional 

 males possess tails which equal the length of head plus body. A 

 male embryo was measured and found to be 46 (25 + 21) and an 

 apparently new-born specimen (No. 41969) measured 50 (26 + 24) 

 mm. 



A large percentage of the females are gravid, with large embryos; 

 many of the authors cited in the bibliography have remarked on the 

 number of young produced, etc. The stomach contents of several 

 chameleons examined consisted largely of beetle elytra; in addition, 

 one ladybird (coccinellid) and one butterfly (apparently pierine) 

 were distinguishable. 



