552 MR. G. A. BOULENGER ON THE VARIETIES OF 
have been able to have access to type specimens. For this purpose I have been 
fortunate in being allowed to utilise the collection of M. F. Lataste, which has been 
entrusted to my care, and to compare many of the type specimens described by 
Dr. de Bedriaga, which have been acquired for the British Museum since the publication 
of the ‘ Catalogue of Lizards.’ Iam also greatly indebted to Count Peracca for friendly 
criticism and much important material in connection with this work, and to Dr. 
de Bedriaga, Prof. Camerano, Dr. Gestro, Dr. Werner, Dr. Vinciguerra, Prof. Monticelli, 
M. F. Doumergue, the Rev. Fathers G. Fournier and T. Néve, Dr. Gadow, M. Dollo, 
Sr. A. Ferrer, Hr. Lorenz Miiller, Dr. J. Roux, Mr. Bryan Hook, and Prof. I. Bolivar 
for loan or gift of specimens. 
This paper does not profess to.be a monograph: it is simply a contribution to our 
knowledge of these Lizards studied in relation to their distribution, a continuation of 
the excellent accounts given in similar manner by Bedriaga in the seventies of last 
century—with this difference, however, that the lepidosis is described with greater 
precision. It deals only with the western parts of Kurope, including Italy, and with 
North Africa; the Lizards of Europe east of the Adriatic, and of South-western Asia, 
are at present being studied by Dr. Werner, Hr. Lehrs, and Prof. v. Méhely, and it is 
better to await the conclusion of their labours before preparing for publication the 
results of my examination of these Lizards, which I propose, however, to furnish ere 
long. When this is done, I hope to be able to summarise the whole subject in a 
strictly systematic order. 
In order to ensure absolute accuracy, the figures illustrating this paper are 
reproductions of photographs, on which great pains have been bestowed by my 
excellent artist, Mr. J. Green. The coloured Plates have, of course, been prepared 
from living specimens. 
I.—CENTRAL EUROPE. 
(Plates XXIV. & XXYV.) 
All the specimens from which the following description is drawn up belong to what 
may be called the typical form in its narrowest sense, the species Lacerta muralis 
having been established by Laurenti! upon specimens from the vicinity of Vienna, 
where, as is well ascertained 2, no definable varieties occur. In order to have before 
me “ topotypes ” of the species, I applied to my friend Dr. Werner, who, with his usual 
kindness, at once sent me two specimens, a male and a female. Very curiously, the 
latter turns out to be the most aberrant example, so far as the scaling is concerned, 
which I have found among the hundreds of specimens examined by me from France, 
Belgium, Western Germany, Switzerland, and various parts of Austro-Hungary, and 
1 Syn. Rept. p. 61, pl. i. fig. 4 (1768).—Seps murals. 
* Werner, Rept. u. Amph. Oesterr. Ung. p. 40 (1897). 
