Lacerta. 181 



■cient ^Touiid for retaininij that form as a species, which fills in the . 

 gap between the more primitive t;roup of L. agilis — L. viridis and 

 L. mural is, \ars. Jimnana and raniiit'Hfris. 



The followinj^ description differs very little from that of the var. 

 campestris, and it is to me often a matter of difficulty to distinguish 

 small specimens of that form from striated s])ecim<'ns of the present. 

 The lower number of scales across the body com))ined with rather 

 shorter limbs and a smaller size appear to l»e the most important 

 •diagnostic characters, l)ut there is a considerable ov<'rlap. 



Head sniall, its length 3], to 4], times in length to vent in males, 4^ 

 to 4^ times in females, either flat above, as usual in the typical form, 

 or even more convex than in the var. campestris, its depth equal 

 to the distance between the anterior corner or the centre of the 

 eye and the anterior border of the tympanum, its width 1^} to 

 11^ in its length ; snout obtusely pointed, as long as or a little longer 

 than postocular part of head. Body not much depressed. The hind 

 limb reaches the axil or the shoulder in males, the wrist or the elbow 

 •of the adpressed fore liml» in females ; foot a little longer than head 

 (up to once and one fourth). Tail 1| to 21 length of head and body. 



Rostral shield usually entering the nostril or narrowly separated 

 from it* ; nasals forming a suture behind the rostral ; a single 

 postnasal! ; frontal as long as or a little shorter than its distance from 

 the end of the snout ; a series of granules between the superciliaries 

 and the two principal supraoculars, the first of which is usually in 

 •contact with the first, or with the first and second, superciliaries ; 

 parietals IJ- to 1} times as long as broad, nearly always in contact 

 with the upper postocularj ; occipital very variable, usually shorter 

 than and as broad as the interparietal, sometimes narrower, sometimes 

 J»roader§ ; temporal scales sometimes as small as in a typical L. nuiraUn, 



* Exceptions in a male from Gorizia and in ono from Brostica. 



t Two on one side in a male from Scoglio Svipetar. 



X Exceptions in a female fi-om Solta, in one from Gelsa, and in one from 

 •Cettinje ; Klaptocz (I.e.) also records an exception in a specimen from 

 Albania. 



§ 2i times as broad in a male from Zee. In a malt; from brestica tlie 

 occiijital is as lon<^ and twice as broad as the interparietal, whilst in a female 

 accompanying it the former shield is barely half as long and half as broad as 

 the latter. A small shield is sometimes intercalated between the intei-parietal 

 ^nd the occipital ; in a male from Hukovici and in another from Lussin Id. 

 the parietals meet in a short suture between these two shields ; the three 

 specimens from the Istrian Karst (E. Schreiber), which foinned part of the 

 Lataste Collection, have a sliort transverse cleft in the parietal on eacli side of 

 the interparietal. 



