Laceita. 309 



Fnrfictdars of Specimens Examined. 

 1. 

 <? ... 152 



... 150 

 ... 124 

 ... 81 

 9 ... 155 



„ . . . 152 



„ P.M. . 140 



Columns as on p. 175. 



Habitat. — Lacerta JayaJcari, named aftei* its discoverer, tlie late 

 Surgeon-Major A. S. G. Jayakar, is only known from Muscat, Arabia. 



This is the giant of the L. mnrali'i group. In conformity with the 

 frequent if not absolutely general rule in this genus that in allied 

 forms an increase in size is accompanied by a finer scaling {L. agilis 

 — viridis — ocellata, L. muralis typica — hrueijijeinanni — niyriventris 

 — hedriagx) the size of the scales is so much reduced as to render the 

 definition of this species by a numerical formula extremely easy. It 

 is true that the same liigh number of scales across the body and of 

 plates in the collar is reached in L. muralis, var. Ulfordl, but the 

 number of gular scales remains low^er (40 the maximum), the temporal 

 scales are larger, there are fewer longitudinal rows of ventral plates 

 and anterior labials, and the postnasal is single. 



I regard L. Ixvis as the nearest ally of L. jayakari. The greater 

 difference in the general proportions between the two sexes, the shorter 

 head, the coarser lepidosis, the i)resence of a large masseteric shield, 

 the number of ventral plates and of femoral pores, and the pattern 

 of markings are the most striking characters distinguishing the former 

 from the latter, which is one of the most sharply defined species of the 

 genus Lacerta. But I do not suggest a derivation of L. jayakari from 

 L. Ixvis; I imagine these two species and L. danfordii to have been 

 independently evolved out of forms closely related to L. brandtii, nearly 

 all the characters of which appear to support such an assumption. 



24. LACERTA DANFORDII. 



Zootoca danfordi, Giinth. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 818, fig. 



Lacerta danfordi, Bedriaga, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 1879, p. 30; 

 Bouleng. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 741; Bedriaga, Abh. Senck. (Jes. 

 xiv, 1886, p. 259 ; Bouleng. Cat. Liz. iii, p. 37, pi. i, fig. 2 (1887) ; 

 Boettg. Sitzb. Ak. Berl. 1888, p. 163 ; Werner, Sitzb. Ak. Wien, cxi, 

 i, 1902, p. 1090, Zool. Anz. xxvii, 1904, p. 255, and Zool. Jahrb., Syst. 



