bii Pro!'. F. A. Sinitt on the Genus Lycodes. 



VT. — Description of a neio Lizard of the Genua Nucras 

 jrom Usoga^ British East Africa. By OsCAR Neumann. 



I\ucras Boulengeri. 



Body elongate ; liead not de|)ic.s.sed, its length (to ear- 

 opening) contained 4^ to 5 times in the length from snout to 

 vent ; two postnasals ; no granules between the supraoculars 

 and the supraclliaries ; interparietal not so long and narrow 

 as in iV. tesseU'jta and A^. Delalandii ; occipital very small ; 

 pubocular bordering the lip between the fourth and fifth upper 

 hibials ; two supratemporals bordering the parietal; tym- 

 ])nnum half as large as the ear-opening. Dorsal scales small, 

 pointed behind, larger on the sides of the body ; 45 to 53 

 scales round the body ; ventrals in 6 longitudinal and 27 to 

 30 transverse series. Femoral pores 11 or 12. Foot much 

 siioiter than the head. Tail thinner than in .V. tessedata and 

 N. Delalandii, 1^ to 1^ as long as head and body. Colour 

 brown above, with small indistinct blackish spots ; bluish 

 white beneath. 



This seems to be a much smaller species than the two 

 previously known ; its principal distinctive characters reside 

 in the rather large tympanum, the pointed dorsal scales, and 

 the small foot. 



Two specimens were collected by me at Lubwas (Usoga) 

 in September 1894. 



Vll. — On the Genus Lycodes. By Prof. F. A. Smitt. 



The genus Lycodes has, in recent times, given very much 

 trouble to the ichthyologist ; and, in the first place, the 

 usual manner of defining the species by the colouring of the 

 body has failed to give any systematic certainty. Thus, 

 when writing the * Scandinavian Fishes,' although I had 

 very poor material for comparison, I was struck * by the 

 apparent identity of Lycodes reticulatus, in Giinther's *' Deep- 

 sea Irishes of 'Challenger' Expedition," with Ly codes frigidus, 

 Collett, which I knew from one of the author's type specimens, 

 and I expressed my suspicion that the " species " friyidus 

 vas a mixture of sterile and more or less deformed specimens 

 of two other species. And as it was impossible to find any 

 constant characteristics, either in nature or in the descriptions 



* Smitt, ScanJ. Fish. p. 610. 



