62 Lacertidie. 



«spece qui n'ait pas ('tc' retrouvc'e depuis le commeucement du siccle. 

 Les Acanthodactyles sout trop rcpaudus et trop abondants daus les 

 regions qu'ils occupeut, et ils vivent trop au grand jour, sur des 

 terrains arides et dc'couverts on rien ue les dcrobe a Toiil de 

 I'observateur." Now, in 1885, when Lataste wrote these lines, the 

 Reptilian fauna of Northern Egypt had been less thoroughly surveyed 

 than that of Northern Algeria. And yet, a lizard which agrees w^ith 

 Savigny's figure, and which, according to Doumergue, who first 

 •described it as late as 1901, is readily recognizalile in the open, is 

 quite common near Oran, where Lataste himself had collected on two 

 occasions, and it nevertheless escaped the eye of such an expert. We 

 may therefore still entertain the hope that the true A. saviymji will 

 some day be found on the north coast of Egypt. 



Doumergue says this species is common on sandy soil at Oran and 

 on the littoral, from Camerata to Mostaganem. It is also found 

 in the interior of the province of Oran, at Ain-Tedales, Sidi-Douma 

 and Daya. A specimen from the " Desert de TOuest " (Schousbo(') is 

 preserved in the Paris Museum. 



A. savlgnyl is more nearly related to ^1. vahjaris, var. lineoinaenJafii!^, 

 than to any other form, and may be said to be connected with it to a 

 certain extent, differing principally in the stronger serration of the 

 outer side of the fourth toe. It is noteworthy that the presence of 

 one, two or three small shields between the prefrontals, which is 

 frequent in A. vuhjarts, var. Uneomaculatus, and appears only as a 

 rare individual anomaly in the other forms of the genus, has liecome a 

 constant ehai'acter in A. savlgnyl. 



5. ACANTHODACTYLUS PAKDALIS. 



Lacerta pardalis, Lichteust. Verz. Doubl. Mus. Berl. p. 99 (1823) ; 

 Hempr. & Ehrenb. Symb. Phys., Zool., Amph. pi. ii, fig. 2 (1899). 



Lacerta deserti (non Lepcch.), M.-Edw. Ann. Sc. Nat. xvi, 1829. 

 pp. 79, 86, pi. vi, fig. 8, and pi. viii, fig. (3 ; Strauch, Erp. Alg. p. o2 

 (1862). 



Scajjteira macidata, Gray, Ann. N. H. i, 18o8, p. 281. 



Acanthodacfylus savignyi, part., Dum. tt Biln*. Erp. Gc'n. v, p. 746 ; 

 Guichen. Explor. Sc. Alg., Kept. p. 14 (1850) ; Vaillant, Miss. Ki'voil 

 Pays Comal., Eept. p. 19 (1882). 



Acaidhodactylns savlgnyl, Gray, Cat. Liz. p. 37 (1845) ; Lichteust. 

 Nomencl. Kept. Mus. Berl. p. 15 (1856); Strauch. op. cit., p. 36; 

 Lataste, Ann. Mus. Geneva (2) ii, 1885, p. 483. 



