Lizards allied to Lacerta muralis. 



255 



I B 1, with L. Icevis, is opposed to I B 2 on account of a 

 supposed difference in the relative size of the occipital and 

 interparietal shields. The author admits that he has not had 

 sufficient material to properly deal with L. Icevis, but I may- 

 assure him that the occipital may, in that species, be smaller 

 than the interparietal, supporting my statement by a figure of 

 the shields in a female from Jerusalem ; it is, however, 

 amazing to find that it is not so in L. grceca, as the larger size 

 of the occipital was one of the characters appealed to by 

 Bedriaga to justify the separation of that species from L. dan- 

 fordi. The size of the occipital varies much in these as well 

 as in most species of Lacerta, but it so happens that L. grceca 

 has frequently the occipital considerably larger than the inter- 

 parietal, as the author himself admits further on in the 

 description of that species (" Occipitale breiter und meist audi 

 1 anger als das Interparietale "), and as shown by a figure of its 

 condition in one of the type specimens. 



Fie. 4. 



Interparietal (//>) and occipital (o) shields of L. Icevis (A) from Jerusalem, 

 and of one of the types of L. graca (B). 



II A cannot be separated from II B, since the suture 

 between the rostral and the frontonasal may be quite as 

 long in L. sardoa, which Mehely unites with L. reticulata 

 (bedriago?), as in L. horvathi. Further on the upper caudal 

 scales of L. reticulata are given as keelless, whereas the 

 author knows perfectly well that they are often feebly keeled, 

 and he seems to forget all about L. sardoa, in which they are 

 usually very distinctly keeled (see Pcracca, Boll. Mus. Tor. 

 xx. 11)05, no. 319, figure of male). 



1 might go on with such criticism, but enough has been 

 said to show that the key is utterly unreliable. Of course it 

 is only by taking such liberties with facts that the distinction 

 of many untenable species receives an appearance of founda- 

 tion in the eyes of those who are not in a po-ition to form an 

 independent judgment. I have always fancied keys were 



