ANNUARIO 
DEL 
MUSEO Z0OLOGICO DELLA R. UNIVERSITÀ DI NAPOLI 
(Nuova Serie ) 
VOLUME I. 
Num. 29. 15 Gennaio 1905 
G. A. BOULENGER 
On a New Variety of the Wall Lizard 
(Lacerta muralis. var. breviceps) 
[Ricevuta 22 Decembre 1904) 
Hearing that I was engaged in a revision of the varieties of Lacerta muralis, 
Professor MowmiceLLi, has been so kind as to send me for examination all the speci- 
mens preserved in the zoological Museum of the Naples University, and among them 
I was much surprised to find six examples, in one bottle labelled Podarcis muralis 
var. lineata, De Berta, “ Napolitano, dono del Direttore A. Costa, 1889 ,, wich be- 
long to an undesceribed variety (1), just distinguishable from the typical form and in 
many respects approaching L. vivipara. Had there been but one specimen, and had 
it come from a distriet where L. muralis and L. vivipara co-exist, I should have 
regarded this form as probably a hybrid between the two species. But there are 
six specimens, and it is not known where they come from, for I can hardly believe 
the indieation “ Napolitano , to be correct, and Prof. MonticeLLI, who has searched 
the registers of his museum, informs me the locality whence they were procured 
has not been noted, and he cannot answer for the correctness of the habitat. I am 
therefore inclined to think they come from some part of Northern Italy, as they 
show a great general resemblance to the typical form, and I consider it necessary 
to establish for them a distinet variety, under the suggestive name of dreviceps. 
In shape, the head resembles that of L. vivipara , it is small and convex, once 
and one third to once and two fifths as long as broad, and its depth equals the 
distance between the anterior border of the eye and the anterior border of the 
tympanum; the snout is obtusely pointed. The neck is as broad as the head, or a 
little narrower. Body rather strongly depressed. Hind limb, in the males, reaching 
the axil or the shoulder, in the females, the elbow of the adpressed fore limb; foot 
a little longer than the head. 
(1) De Berra's variety lineata (quadrilineata Gray, genei Gar) is a different form, inhabiting 
Sardinia and Corsica. 
