166 Dr. A. Glinther on Reptiles from China. 



black ; the most conspicuous is a band running from the 

 upper part of the eye along the upper margin of the neck ; 

 sometimes it is interrupted in some part of its course, and 

 generally a continuation of it is visible in front of the eye. A 

 short curved band between the eye and the tympanum, another 

 running from the lower part of the eye to below the tympa- 

 num ; an oblong spot at the posterior angle of the mandible. 

 Tympanum and posttympanic region with curved streaks and 

 spots. Sides and lower part of the neck with parallel straight 

 bands, posteriorly broken up into series of spots. In very 

 young examples these ornamentations are less numerous. 



2. Trionyx sinensis^ Wiegm. 

 Three young specimens. 



3. Tachydromus septentnonah's^ Gthr. 

 Numerous. 



4. Tachydromus Wolteri^ Fisch. 

 One specimen. 



Notes on the Species o/ Tachydromus. 



The lizards of this genus (with the exception of T. smarag- 

 dinus) resemble one another in general appearance so much 

 as to induce some herpetologists to consider certain characters 

 on which I had based the distinction of the species to be of 

 very doubtful specific value. I think the species can be 

 readily and with certainty distinguished ; they are based on 

 characters which in my experience are subject to only excep- 

 tional variation, and which, slight as they are, must appear 

 significant enough when they are found to be constant in 

 specimens from the same locality and combined with one or 

 more similarly constant characters. 



The late Dr. Stoliczka was the first to refuse specific value 

 to the number of mental scutes and inguinal pores. In his 

 notes on a Tachydromus from Sikkim (Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 

 xli. 1872^ p. 87), which he identified with the archipelagic 

 T. sexUneatus and of which he had twenty-five specimens, 

 he says that he has found four specimens with four chin- 

 shields, the others having three, and one specimen with two 

 inguinal pores, the others having three, four, or five. Such 

 an amount of variation I have not found in any species, 

 although I examined equally large numbers of individuals of 

 several species ; and in not a single species have I met 



