( 79 ) 



specimens were very shy, ami quickly disappeared among the rocks when one 

 tried to ajiproach them. The distribution is peculiar, and we never saw it 

 anywhere else. 



s. Uromastix acanthinurus nigerrimus subsp. nov. 



iStructurally like L'. acanthi minis acaiitkinurus from Biskra, and U. a. iiJgri- 

 ir.ittris R. and H. from the Mzab country, but much blacker. Underside in adult 

 males entirely black, of a deeper hue even than in U. a. iciyriri'ntris; underside of 

 tail dark olive to black. Upperside very deep black, with scattered small greenish 

 yellow spots and patches of from one to nine scales ; digits underneath often 

 brownish yellow. Largest male from snout to tip of tail, 40 cm. A youn'^er 

 male of 33 cm. is less typical, there being almost as much greenish yellow as 

 black on the upperside, and tlie underside is not of such a deep black. A male 

 from El-Hadadra, half-way between El-Golea and Ghardaia, clearly belongs to 

 the same southern form, though it has a little more light sjwtting on the back. 

 In the same locality, however, a very large and, seen from a distance, ajiparently 

 entirely black individual was seen, but unfortunately not obtained. 



Type : c? ad., Southern Oued Mya, 8. iv. 1::.!, in the Tring Museum. Cotypes in 

 the British Museum. 



Young individuals are not distinguishable from those of the other races. 



We had no time or inclination to collect L'romasti.r near Biskra, but I saw 

 some on the market for sale, freshly stuffed in a rough ftishiou, for the tourists. 

 They agreed in colour with those we formerly saw, although some had a great 

 deal of black on the undersurface, thus approaching L\ a. iiigrioentris. 



'Werner (Verk. zool.-bot. Ges. 1892, p. 354) describes his Biskra specimens as 

 " bei WohJbefinden stets silbergrau mit schwarzer Marmorieruug, bei niedri^er 

 Temperatur granschwarz." 



He also says that their underside varies from " gelblichweiss bis schwarz." 



In Sor. Zool. xviii. p. 4G,s Mr. Rothschild and I described the Biskra form 

 as "more or less dull grey in api)earance." Mr. Boulenger {Cut. Liz. Brit. 

 Mm. i. p. 407) called them " greyish above, dotted or vermiculated with blackish ; 

 lower surfaces lighter, uniform or marbled with blackish," and in his Catalogue 

 of the Reptile.i of Barbarg (p. 110) as "yellowish, greenish, or greyish above, 

 dotted or vermiculated with blackish or brown," but at that time specimens from 

 Biskra, etc., and the Mzab were not described separately. 



When at Ghardaia we caught one and saw several specimens in the hands 

 of a Dutch artist, and of Professor Kurcouf, which agreed with the type of U. a. 

 idgrivei(tri.-i, and one was even bigger tlian all we had seen before, and on the 

 upperside of a beautiful gulden green colour, with three spotted brown bands. 



U. a. nigerrimus evidently replaces the other two forms in the Oued Mj'a 

 region and on the plateau of Tademait from Fort Miribel to south of Ain Guettara, 

 and also those north of El-Golea, ne:ir El-Hadadra, belong to this blackish form. 



I brought home five more or less adult males, one female, and a number 

 of young ones. As 1 have said before, young ones are not distinguishable from 

 those of ('. (t. acanthinurus and U. a. nigricentris, and females are less typical 

 or ipiite like those of the other forms. This is not strange, as females and 

 young of other sjjccies of Uromastix differ also very much from adult males, and 

 young individiuils of I', acanthi n-iir us are not even distinguishable from those of 

 /'. ormUus atid hariia:ickei (Werner, Vcrh.zool.-bot. (/i;s. W'icn, 1894, p. 7'.)j. 



