XVI. REPORT ON A SMALL COLLEC- 

 TION OF LIZARDS FROM 

 TRAVANCORE. 



By N. AnnandaIvE, D.Sc, Superintendent, Indian Museum. 



The lizards noticed or described in the following paper were 

 collected during a trip undertaken in November, 1908, in conjunc- 

 tion with the Trivandrum Museum. I have to thank Lieut.-Col. 

 F. W. Dawson, Director of that institution, for permitting Mr. 

 R. S. N. Pillay, his chief assistant, to accompany me, and also for 

 much other assistance. Unfortunately we had no time to visit the 

 high mountains in the northern part of the State; but after travel- 

 ling by boat down the " backwaters " from Cochin to the neighbour- 

 hood of Quilon (whence we made a detour to visit the large fresh- 

 water lake at Shasthancottah) and thence to Trivandrum we 

 returned along the high road at the base of the Western Ghats to 

 Tenmalai on the western side of that range, which we crossed by 

 rail to Shencottah on the frontier of the Tinnevelli District of the 

 Madras Presidency. Small though the collection of lizards is that 

 we made, it throws light on some interesting problems of distribu- 

 tion and biology as well as including specimens of a species not 

 previously described. 



I. Gonatodes ornatus. 



A young specimen from under a stone by the roadside, near 

 Kulattupuzha. 



The young of this lizard are much darker than the aduHs, the 

 sides, limbs, ventral surface, iris, and top of the head being dark 

 chocolate-brown. A narrow white line extends from each nostril 

 through the upper part of the eye to the back of the neck, where 

 it nearly meets its fellow; from this point a broad greyish band, 

 mottled with brown, stretches along the back, becoming obscure 

 on the tail. 



2. Gonatodes kandianus. 



A small specimen taken at the base of a tree-trunk, beside a 

 stream at Tenmalai, in the Western Ghats. 



3. Hemidactylus brookii. 



This is the common house lizard in the extreme south of India, 

 in which H. flaviviridis appears to be rare. 



It is well known that H. brookii possesses considerable power 

 of temporary colour change in accordance with the amount of 



