Nucras. 19 



above, reddish-brown, with two rows of circular white spots, dis- 

 contiuued about half way between the anterior and posterior 

 extremities, each spot surrounded by a black ring ; sides chequered, 

 black and white, the latter colour disposed in narrow vertical stripes. 

 Tail light brown, with a dotted black line on each side, and the space 

 between them above marked with small black spots. Under parts 

 wliite." This description is /supplemented by a very good account 

 of the same specimen by Dumcril and Bibron, of which this is a 

 translation : — 



Instead of a great number of small black spots with white pupils 

 (as in L. delalandii), there are only tw^o series, spots a little larger, 

 on each side of the back. Two or three irregular l)lackish spots on 

 the upper lip. Two vertical blackish stripes on the temple, which 

 is white ; a third above the ear, and three or four on the neck. Others 

 along the flanks, but shorter ; on examining them carefully, one may 

 guess how they were formed. It is probably that, in early youth, 

 white spots mingled wdth black existed on the flanks ; gradually, as 

 they enlarged, the black circle opened above and beneath ; then each 

 of the two portions became raised and fused wdth the other, Avhilst 

 simultaneously the white central spot enlarged vertically, thus 

 producing alternately black and white vertical bars. Upper surface 

 of hind limbs with some white spots incompletely surrounded with 

 l)lackish. Here and there some black spots on the upper surface of 

 the base of the tail ; others, similar, are present on the sides, so 

 regularly arranged and so crowded as to form a longitudinal stripe 

 {cf. Ann. S. Afr. Mus. xiii, pi. vi, fig. 8). 



The interpretation given to the markings by the authors of the 

 Erp6tologie Gcncrale is fully confirmed by the examination of 

 the young, with which we are now acquainted (var. ocellata, Blgr.). 



Very young specimens (37-40 niillim. to vent) fi'om Pietersburg, 

 Transvaal, are dark brown above and blackish on the sides, with 

 numerous white ocelli in three or four series on the back and three 

 series on each side ; a white vertebral streak on the nape, which may 

 be continued, interrupted, on the body ; sides of head and neck with 

 black and white vertical lines ; upper orbital border whitish ; a white 

 streak on each parietal shield, continuous with the outer dorsal series 

 of ocelli; tail coral-red. In a larger young (43 millim.) from Kokong, 

 Bechuanaland, the doi'sal markings ai*e the same, but the ocelli on the 

 sides of the body are fused to form vertical bars (I.e., fig. 7). 



A half-grown female from Pietersburg is reddish-brown above, with 

 an interrupted light, black-edged vertebral streak, a dorso-lateral series 

 of ocelli, and three series of ocelli on each side, the lower of which 



