LACERTA MURALIS IN WESTERN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA. 383 
As may be seen from the above-given measurements, the proportions do not differ 
from those of the typical form ; nor does, as a rule, the shape of the head, although it 
may be very strongly depressed—its depth, in certain males from Liguria and Pianosa, 
not exceeding the distance between the eye and the tympanum. ‘The hind limb 
reaches the shoulder or the collar in males, the axil in females. 
As to the coloration, the passage from the typical form} is so complete that certain 
specimens may be referred almost equally well to the one form as to the other. For 
instance, one of the females from Lerici has the black network on the back much broken 
up and a well-marked light dorso-lateral streak, and would be unhesitatingly classified as 
f. typica but for the rather large black spots on the belly, arranged in regular longi- 
tudinal series. For it is frequently the case in this variety that the black spots run 
together to form longitudinal bands. The dorsal markings are very variable, usually 
affecting the form of a close network, but sometimes appearing in disconnected blotches 
or vermicular lines ; a vertebral chain of black spots may be present. Black and white 
spots form very regular and conspicuous bars on the sides of the tail. 
Dr. Gestro has very kindly sent me a large number of specimens of the Wall-Lizard 
collected indiscriminately in the immediate vicinity of Genoa; this series goes far to 
show the instability of the characters on which the distinction between the var. bruegge- 
manni and the typical form rests. Some specimens are not at all separable from the 
latter, while others, of the most vivid grass-green on the back (Pl. XXII. fig. 2), answer 
to the former; and between these two extremes every possible variation in shade may 
be followed. A female with the markings as in the typical form, but remarkable for 
its green back and yellow lower parts, is figured on Pl. XXII. fig. 3. The back may 
be coppery brown, or greyish brown, or greenish grey or olive, or green in front and 
brown behind. ‘he colour of the lower parts varies equally, and irrespective of that 
of the upper parts. Most specimens are white on the belly, often with a brownish, 
pinkish, or greenish tinge, uniform or more or less spotted with black; while in one 
male specimen with olive-green back the lower parts are copper-red, with black spots 
confined to the collar-plates and to the two outer rows of ventral plates (Pl. XXII. 
fig. 1). An interrupted or continuous series of turquoise-blue spots is always present 
on the outermost row of ventral plates. The back, in the males, is always much spotted 
or reticulated with black or dark brown, and a black vertebral line or regular series of 
spots is often present; the sides are brown or purplish, with black network, often 
enclosing round blue or green spots ; a blue, black-edged ocellus is often present above 
the axil, One of these specimens (Pl. XXIII. fig. 3) is so strikingly similar in its 
markings to certain males of the var. guadrilineata that it might easily be mistaken for 
that variety were it not for the flatter head; and it is noteworthy that its exceptionally 
1 Especially from such individuals as have been named var. nigriventris (non Bonaparte) by De Betta, Erp, 
Venet. p. 154 (1857). 
9 
VOL. XVIIL—Part Iv. No. 5.—October, 1905. SE 
