ALLIED TO LACERTA MUKALIS. 



45 



This species has been divided into two, L. taurica, from the countries bordering the 

 north and west of the Black Sea, extending westwards to Budapest, and L. ionica, from 

 Greece and the Ionian Islands. Although the extremes are rather different in form 

 and coloration, they are so completely linked as to render a good definition of L. ionica 

 impossible, and I have therefore reduced tlic latter to the rank of variety, characterized. 

 in its most accentuated form, hy a rather longer head with less convex snout, rather 

 longer hind limbs, more numerous femoral pores, and especially by the coloration. As 

 1 regard the Greek-Ionian lizard, in which a vertebral series of black spots sometimes 

 ])crsists, as the more primitive, its coloration is here dealt with first. 



Green on the head and neck and on the back, brown on the sides of the body, with 

 a more or less distinct light streak along each side of the back, usually with black 

 spots above and below it, these spots sometimes large, more usually small ; a vertebral 



Text-ii.^Mire 1 1. 



« 6 c 



Head and anterior part of body of Laeerta taurica. a. ? , lloumiuiia ; h. (S , Hungary ; c. J , Roumania. 



(From l\Z.». 1907, p. 5(i5, text-fig. 1G5.) 



series of small black spots occasionally present (PI. III. fig. 5) ; a more or less distinct 

 ocellar spot with blue centre sometimes present above the shoulder ; a pale brown or 

 golden colour forms spots or a band on each side of the posterior part of the body and 

 on the base of the tail ; a more or less distinct light streak from below the eye to 

 the thigh ; fore limbs green, hind limbs and tail brownish grey with light spots. 

 Some specimens are unspotted (var. oUvicolor Schreiber) uniform green, with the sides 

 of the body partly or entirely reddish brown, or green above and olive-brown on the 

 sides, with a whitish dorso-lateral line (PI. III. fig. 6). Belly greenish or yellowish 

 white, or i)ale yellow, with pale blue spots on the outer ventral plates, which may 

 also bear small black spots. 



In the typical form (text-fig. 11, a) a brown shade predominates on the upper parts, 

 with the exception of a more or less broad vertebral stripe, which is of a more or less 

 bright green ; a liglit streak may extend from the outer border of the parietal shield to 



