1912.] N. ANNANDALE: The Fauna of Parésnath Hill. 47 
Lygosoma sikkimense, Boulenger, Fauna Brit. Ind.—Rept., pp. 199- 
200. 
Stoliczka many years ago obtained a single specimen of this 
species (which he described as the type of a new species, Mocoa 
sacra) from one of the little shrines on the ridge of Parésnath. 
I was so fortunate as to obtain a second near the summit. Both 
specimens are in the collection of the Indian Museum and I 
have compared them very carefully with a large series from 
Sikhim, Darjiling and Nepal. I can find no constant difference. 
My specimen has the fourth toe shorter than is usually the case, 
but one of the supposed specific characters of M. sacra was that 
this toe was longer than in L. sikkimense, and in Stoliczka’s speci- 
men, although it is not actually longer than in many Himalayan 
individuals, it is much longer than in mine. There can be no doubt 
that Boulenger was right in relegating M. sacra to the synonymy 
of L. stkkimense. 
L. sitkkimense is a species otherwise peculiar to the E. Himala- 
yas. We have no evidence that its range extends west of the Nepal 
Valley, and in the Little Nepal Valley it actually occurs side by 
side with L. himalayanum, a closely allied species that takes its 
place in the W. Himalayas. Moreover, there is no evidence that 
L. stkkimense descends the Himalayas to altitudes of less than 
3,000 feet. It is a damp-loving species and, unlike most skinks, is 
oviparous, laying its eggs in wet moss on tree-trunks during the 
rains. The eggs have comparatively soft, leathery skins, which 
shrivel up if they become dry. In these circumstances the embryo 
perishes. 
IT.—SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
The data set forth above must be regarded as extremely 
imperfect, but, imperfect as they are, they afford evidence of 
one remarkable fact, namely, that whereas a large proportion 
of the fauna of Parésnath is identical with that of the Ganges 
valley and asmaller proportion apparently endemic on the hill, 
a Himalayan element can also be detected which is totally absent 
from the surrounding plains. Representatives of this element 
are Phlebotomus major and Sepsis cynipsea among the Diptera 
(both representing families that have been more thoroughly 
investigated than most in India), Haphsa nicomache among the 
Rhynchota, Thysia wallichii among the beetles, and above all 
Lygosoma sikkimense among the lizards. Although winged insects 
might be blown with comparative ease across the Ganges valley 
from the Nepal foot-hills to Parésnath, it is quite impossible that a 
lizard could be carried in this way. It is impossible, moreover, 
that the eggs of L. sikkimense could be transported in a living con- 
dition by birds, for they perish within a short period of being 
removed from the damp moss in which they are laid. We must 
therefore seek for a geographical explanation of the occurrence of 
this lizard on an isolated hilltop two hundred miles from its 
present abode. 
