44 Lacertidie. 



true that some iudiviJuals show at birth a somewhat irregular 

 disposition of the ocelli, as also happens in the adult ; but I am 

 fully convinced that when this is the case these spots will not, later 

 in life, arrange themselves in longitudinal series. I have before me 

 a young, one day old, from Churt, Avhich does not differ from its 

 mother in the chai-acter and arrangement of its markings (longitudinal 

 dark bands and ocellar spots). Further, in the young of the so-called 

 var. rubra the dorsal region does not bear any ocelli. The " argus " 

 livery is not a constant one for the young, as the descriptions of some 

 authors would lead vis to believe. 



In addition to ocelli, the very young, which are grey or greyish 

 brown above and white beneath, often have a continuous or interrupted 

 yellowish or whitish vertebral streak.* 



In a number of young, 30 to 35 millim. long from snout to vent, taken 

 in August at the same spot in Luxemburg, I find the following 

 variations. 



In all of them three dark longitudinal l)ands run along the body 

 and tail ; the median, 8 to 10 scales broad, much narrower than the 

 pileus ; the lateral, about 6 scales broad, occupies the space between 

 the upper border of the upper temporal shield and the middle of the 

 posterior border of the tympanum. In most of them the dark median 

 band is divided on the nape by a narrow light sti'eak, which in some is 

 continued all along the body Avhilst in others it is broken up into a 

 series of spots which are dark-edged on the sides, and a similar series 

 of spots extends along the border of the <Iark band, thus making three 

 series of dorsal ocelli ; or the spots bordering the band are more or less 

 confluent into a light dark-edged streak. On each side there is an 

 upper series of large ocellar spots, starting from above the tympanum 

 and terminating above the hind limb ; a light dark-edged streak or a 

 series of ocelli from the tympanum to the thigh and reappearing on the 

 tail ; a broad light, dark-edged streak along each side of the belly, on 

 the outer ventral plates ; sometimes this ventral streak sends oft" upward 

 processes which break up into spots, thus forming a fourth lateral series 

 of ocelli. A more or less complete light ring surrounds the tympanum, 

 and the lateral streaks or series of spots never extend on the temple as 

 they do in the vars. exigua and chersonensis. Only exceptionally is a 

 light line present from the superciliary edge along the suture between 

 the parietal and the upper temporal shields, behind which it joins the 



* It is highly remarkable that among the very numerous adult specimens 

 I have examined from England and Northern and Central Europe I should 

 never have come across one in which this streak lias jjei'sisted uninterrupted, 

 as in the var. spinalis. 



