384 j\Jr. G. A. Boulenger — Remarks on 



issued on March 26, 1887, and the Russian memoir, as I 

 understand from a communication of Dr. Strauch, not before 

 the 1st of April, the name G. marginata will, if my identifi- 

 cation proves correct, have a few days' priority. 



In the genus Tarentola^ of which the author gives a 

 synopsis of all the species hitherto described, two new ones 

 are established under the names of T. negJecta and T. angus- 

 ticpps^ each based upon a single specimen from Batna, 

 Algeria. With these, or rather with this new species, for 1 

 regard T. neglecta and angustice'ps as individual variations of 

 one and the same form, I have been acquainted for the last 

 two years, three specimens, from the Algerian Sahara, having 

 been ])resented to the Natural- History Museum by M. Lataste 

 in March 1885 ; but their donor having expressed his inten- 

 tion of describing the new species, I had put them aside 

 awaiting his publication, and therefore no mention is made of 

 them in the Appendix to the third volume of the ' Catalogue 

 of Lizards.' 1 will retain for the species the name T. negJecta. 

 The presence or absence of a faint keel and the degree of 

 convexity of the head-scales are most unsatisfactory characters 

 for separating species in the genus Tarentola. The Natural- 

 History Museum possesses specimens of T. mauritanica with 

 distinctly though feebly keeled upper head-scales, and of our 

 three specimens of T. neglecta two have them keeled, . the 

 other not. Before leaving the genus Tarentola I must express 

 my regret at seeing the Linnean name mauritanica rejected in 

 favour of Aldrovandi's/aceia/^a (1663). With the majority 

 of modern systematists, 1 hold that the right of priority, in 

 binomial nomenclature, should not extend back beyond Lin- 

 nteus's twelfth edition of the ' Systema Naturae' (1766). In 

 the case of the species of Teratoscincus Dr. Strauch disre- 

 gards the rule of priority in favour of his name KeyserUngii 

 (1863), against that of scincus (Schlegel, 1858), simply re- 

 marking that there is no sufficient ground forgiving preference 

 to the latter. Schlegel's little book ' Handleidiug tot de Beo- 

 fening der Dierkunde' (ii., 1858), not being much known, I 

 cannot do better than reproduce the description by which he 

 has unquestionably secured priority : — 



^''Kamvingers {Sienodactgliis). — Vingers sonder schijv^en, 

 maar van onderen met gevone, ter wcerszijde met eene rij van, 

 als stekeljes verlengte, schubben bekleed. Zij leven op zand- 

 groden in Afrika en Asie. De gewoue soort, Stenod. guttatusj 

 bewoont Noord-Afrika. Eene andere, IStenod. scrncus, wijkt 

 van alle overig*; Gekko's daardoor af, dat haar romp en staart 

 met zeer groote, elkander op de wijse van dakpannen over- 



