72 Lacertidse. 



outer row, which may be green or bluish, rarelj- with black dots ; in a 

 male from Prague there are a few scattered black dots, in addition, on 

 the posterior part of the belly. 



Totally black specimens, above and beneath, have been observed in 

 "Prance, Austria, and Herzegovina (var. nigra, Schreib., holomelaSy 

 Weru.). There is one in the British Museum, a female from between 

 Eetz and Znaim, Lower Austria."'^ 



I now pass on to the eastern specimens (GTreece, Bulgaria, Roumania, 

 Asia Minor), which have been referred by Bedriaga, Werner and 

 Schreiber to the var. vaillanti, Bedr. These lizards are rarely striated, 

 and when they are there is no light vertebral streak. Comparing 

 them to western specimens, I am not struck by the large size of the 

 temporal plates,t including the masseteric, as the same condition is 

 frequent in the typical form from Central and Western Europe ; on 

 the other hand, the tympanic shield, which is nearly always absent 

 or very small in specimens from France and the Channel Islands, is 

 generally present, and as often as not in contact with the second upper 

 temporal ; as, however, the tympanic shield is not rarely well developed 

 in specimens from Italy and Austria, the character cannot jvistify the 

 recognition of a variety, in the Linnean or sub-specific sense in which 

 I use the term. Occipital shorter than the interparietal and some- 

 times broader.ij: The number of scales across the middle of the body 

 varies between 44 and 65, and that of femoral pores between 15 and 

 20. § Venti'als in 6 longitudinal and 26 to 30 transverse series. 22 

 to 28 lamellar scales under the fourth toe. 



Tail I3 to 2 5 times as long as head and body. 



The largest Roumanian examples measured by Kiritzescu do not 

 exceed 120 millim. without the tail ; the largest examined by me, from 

 Salouica, measures 136. 



According to Kiritzescu, Avhose account is confirmed by the material 

 before me, Roumauian specimens vary very much in colour and 

 markings. Examples answering to the so-called vars. hilineata, 

 'maculata, and concolor occur, but they are rai*er. Most of them vary 

 from grey to brown or olive, without or with very small and irregular 

 black spots ; the young are mostly uniform grey or brown, often with 

 the vertebral area darker. Some adults (Salonica) may be uniform 



* Eecorded by Werner, Jahresb. Nat. Ver. Magdeb. 1892, p. 245. 



t 10 to 25, usvially 11 to 19 (not including the vipper temporals) in the 

 specimens examined ; by means of a formula generally iised in describing snakes 

 the arrangement of the anterior shields between the first upper temporal and 

 the labials may be expressed as 2 or 3 + 2 or 3, rarely 2+1. 



X As broad as the frontal in a large male from Salonica. 



§ Up to 21 according to Werner. 



