196 Lacertidie. 



upper surface of the tail jiale brown or olive brown, the sides of the 

 back bright grass-green ; the brown, often light edged, vertebral band 

 bears two parallel series of small black spots, or a single straight or 

 zig-zag series of large black spots ; these spots, as a rule, do not begin 

 until some way behind the occiput or nape ; the sides, in females, ))ear 

 two more or less distinct, straight or wavy, whitish streaks (the upper 

 proceeding from the superciliary border, the lower passing through the 

 ear), which may be edged with black or bordered by small black spots, 

 whilst in adult males they are spotted with black and white, the spots 

 often forming ocelli ; a large black spot or an ocellus with blue or green 

 centre often present above the axil ; black spots on the upper surface 

 of the head present or absent ; white black-edged spots on the hinder 

 side of the limbs. Large male specimens have the upper surface of 

 the head bright green. Lower parts white, greenish, yellowish, or 

 reddish, without spots, or with a series of black spots on the outer row 

 of ventral plates, which may also bear blue or green spots, usually of 

 small size. The young are always very distinctly streaked, and the 

 two green streaks are narrower in proportion to the brown areas. 



Further specimens answering to the above descrij)tion occur in 

 other parts of Italy, as far south as Rome, in Elba and Corsica, 

 and in Northern Dalmatia. More aberrant colour- variations are the 

 following : 



Green colour absent, or reduced to a narrow streak on each side of 

 the vertebral stripe (males and females from Turin and Trieste). 



Olive above, with three reddish brown stripes, but no spots (female 

 from Turin). 



Pale brownish grey, with a pale green stripe on each side of the 

 ventral line ; a trace of a whitish dorsolateral streak ; no spots (female 

 from the sandy shore at Ostia, near Castelfrauco). 



Uniform greyish olive (Sansego, var. olivacea of Werner). 



Green above, with three dorsal series of large black blotches (Rome, 

 Florence, Zara). 



Five black stripes along the body, with narrow light streaks between 

 them (var. muUifasciata, Positana Spado, from Ponte Salerio, near 

 Rome). 



Green above, with a dorsolateral series of large black spots ; 

 another lateral series of large black spots from axil to groin, and a 

 third on the outer row of ventral plates, which are blue ; no vertebral 

 stripe or series of spots (var. Uvornensis, Bedr., from Calambrone,. 

 near Leghorn). 



