NOTES. 135 



Peninsula. It is very closely related to L. crepuscularis from New 

 Caledonia. At first sight I mistook the living lizard for Gonatodes 

 kandianus, to which it bears a close superficial resemblance ; but the 

 tail is prehensile and the pupil vertical, and there is considerable 

 difference in the structure of the feet. I am not aware that the 

 prehensile character of the tail has hitherto been noticed in this 

 species. 



(4) Eggs and Young of the Lizard Calotes nigrilabris. 



Calotes nigrilabris is a large green lizard with conspicuous black 

 markings on the side of the head and on the throat. It is only 

 found in the mountains of Ceylon at considerable altitudes, and is 

 common in the neighbourhood of Nuwara Eliya. Dr. Willey* in 

 his note on the viviparity of another lizard {Cophotis ceylanica) 

 common in the same district rather implies that Calotes nigrilabris 

 is oviparous, but no particulars appear to have been pubUshed about 

 its eggs, which differ considerably from those of the common and 

 widely distributed Calotes versicolor of the plains and lower hill- 

 slopes of India and Ceylon. 



On October 14 I found near Pattipola (alt. 6,000 feet) a clutch of 

 four eggs, three of which survived the vicissitudes of a journey to 

 Calcutta and finally produced (on November 1 and 2) young lizards 

 agreeing in all essential characters with adult specimens of Calotes 

 nigrilabris. Two were sacrificed, in order that they might become 

 specimens. The four eggs lay in a small depression in sandy 

 soil beside a footpath leading, at the spot, through open country. 

 They had probably been covered with earth \\ hich had been washed 

 away by heavy rain, and were still partly embedded, without exhi- 

 biting any definite arrangement. In shape they differed from the 

 eggs of C. versicolor in being proportionately much broader and in 

 having a regularly oval, instead of an almost spindle-shaped, outHne. 

 The shell, although probably it contained a certain amount of cal- 

 careous matter, was tough, leathery, and flexible, and the external 

 surface was ornamented by an almost microscopic network of fine 

 furrows. The eggs varied shghtly in size ; one of them measures 

 (in spirit) 17 X 11 mm. 



One of the eggs was opened the same day and found to contain a 

 well advanced embryo already complete in all its parts, but enclosed 

 in the usual embryonic membranes, which were exceedingly trans- 

 parent, and still with a large yolk-sack attached. The yolk-sack 

 was twisted over the back of the embryo, to which it formed a 

 kind of cloak. The fore legs were bent up in front of the face in such 

 a way that the claws projected towards the shell of the egg. A 

 faint pigmentation was already apparent in the skin of the embryo, 

 and the position of the pineal body was marked by a conspicuous 

 black spot on the surface of the head. 



" Spolia Zeylanica," Vol. III., p. 235 (1906). 



