186 SAURIA. 



over Italy and the South of Switzerland. Is found in Sicily, 

 Greece, Poland, Austria, the Crimea, and Barbaiy. 



THIRD GROUP. Dorsal scales distinctli/ granular, very 

 close to each other. 



Lacerta ocellata. 



Lacerta ocellata, Dum. et Bib, vol. ii. p. 218; Buon. Faun. Ital. 



(figured). 

 Lacerta margaritata, Schinz, Europ. Faun. vol. ii. p. 14. 

 The Great Green Lizard. 



Desceiption. — This species is the largest of its genus, and 

 in its general form closely resembles the L. viridis ; the 

 fore-legs do not quite reach to the nostrils, and the hind- 

 legs almost always extend to the shoulders ; the head is 

 one-fourth of the length, measured from the tip of the nose 

 to the root of the tail ; the tail is more than two -thirds of 

 the entire length of the animal; the lower eyehd is scaly; 

 on each side of the palate are twelve small conical teeth. 

 There are two naso-frenal plates, one over the other ; the 

 occipital plate is triangular, as broad, or broader than the 

 frontal plate ; the temples are paved with small, nearly 

 equal, polygonal plates, the central one very rarely a little 

 larger than the others, thus differing from the three pre- 

 ceding species. The scales on the upper parts of the body 

 are smaller than in the L. viridis ; those on the neck are 

 round, on the back slightly oval, and somewhat tectiform. 

 A line drawn across the back, from one margin of the 

 belly to the other, contains sixty-six scales ; the coUar is 

 composed of eleven scales ; the ventral plates are in ten 

 rows, the two outer very small, with about twenty plates 

 in each, the other rows with twenty-five or twenty- six 

 plates in each ; the pre-anal plate is large, with a double 

 or triple border of angular plates in front ; femoral pores 



