254 Records of the Indian Museum. ( Voi,. Ill, 



direct and reflected light that falls upon it; but this change 

 consists mainly, if not entirely, in the temporary disappear- 

 ance and appearance of much of the dark pigment of the 

 integument, owing presumably to contraction of the pigment cells. 

 Another kind of change, however, also occurs, as was ver^^ clearl}^ 

 demonstrated by certain specimens taken at Shasthancottah. 

 Some of these were captured on the whitewashed wall of a 

 bungalow and appeared to be incapable of becoming very dark on 

 the dorsal surface even in a dark environment. The ventral surface 

 was alwa^'s white. Other specimens taken at the same place under 

 black stones were darker on the dorsal surface, and still remain so 

 after six months in spirit. Their ventral surface, moreover, is 

 dotted with dark pigment. These specimens would seem to prove 

 that habitual living in dark surroundings produces an actual and 

 more or less permanent increase of pigment, not merely- a tempo- 

 rary expansion of the pigment cells. 



Eggs of H. brookii were common under stones at vShasthan- 

 cottah in November. 



4. Hemidactylus leschenaultii . 



Apparently much commoner in S. India than in Bengal. I 

 took a specimen on the outer wall of a bungalow at Shencottah on 

 the Madras frontier of Travancore, but have never seen one 

 indoors. 



5. Draco dussumieri. 



Common about ten miles north of Trivandrum, but apparentlj'' 

 very local. One of my men saw one in the jungle near Kulattu- 

 puzha, at the base of the Western Ghats. 



6. Otocryptis heddomii. 



Mr. Pillay took several specimens at Aryankavu, below the 

 western slopes of the Western Ghats. 



7. Calotes versicolor. 



This widely distributed species is common in the plains of 

 Travancore, and ascends the Western Ghats to an altitude of at 

 least 3,000 feet. The examination of many living specimens from 

 S. India, from the Western Ghats in the Bombay Presidenc}*, and 

 from various parts of the Himalayas and Bengal, has forced me 

 again to reconsider the question of the differences between the 

 typical form of this species and that called by Blyth Calotes gigas. 

 As I have found a certain number of specimens which it is impos- 

 sible to refer with certainty to one of these forms rather than the 

 other, it seems to be impossible to regard them as distinct species, 

 and I am forced to fall back on my original view [Journ. Asiat. 

 Soc. Bengal, 1905, p. 87), that the race which inhabits the drier 

 parts of India at low altitudes exhibits a much greater sexual 



