EAST AFRICAN LIZARDS. QQ\ 



Sixteen specimens from D;u- es Salnam, Mkntii Stn Ilono-, 

 Knnamb;i, Stn., Kilosa, Sana, Gvvao's, Mtali's, Mknlama, Usshoni' 

 and Tabora m Tanganyika Teriitoiy, where it was also seen at 

 Uhya and Mbala. It was collected at Frere Town, Nairobi 

 Kisuniu, and Karungu Bay in Kenya Colony. ' ' 



The largest male measured 9| inches (108 + ] 36) and female 

 9^ inches (109 + 140), from Dar es Salaam and Kilosa re- 

 spectively. Two specimens from Karungu Bay and Kisumu 

 had 37 mid-body scales, and many of these were quinque- 

 carinate . ^ 



Coloration of a female taken at Nairobi on 12.viii.20.— Rich nut- 

 brown on upper parts turning to copper on tail, scales frequently 

 iridescent. Head-shields edged with black. Light straw-coloure"d 

 stnpe commences above the eye, passes along the bnck 

 inthe dorso-lateral region, and disappears on the" base of the 

 tail. Upper labials and subocular pde straw-colour. Sides 

 thickly besprinkled with similarly-colored light spots inter- 

 mixed with black. Throat marbled with brown. Under parts 

 white. 



A female taken at Kisumu, 18.xi. 22, only measured 100 -f- 90 

 yet had ten young in titero very near the birth. I should think 

 tins is the maximum for this species. A female at Kilosa ga.ve 

 birth to young on 22. ii. 23. 



A Lesser Black Stink-Ant {Pattothyreus iarsatus) came 

 running home with a crumb as large as itself, when a half-criown 

 skmk ran to meet it, seized the crumb, and gave it a terrier- like 

 shake ; the ant let go and retreated and the lizard dropned the 

 crumb ; the ant hurried back, seized it, and made a dasl/for its 

 hole, the lizard giving chase but failing to catch it. Another 

 skink was seen to seize a large hawjv-moth and dart with it into 

 a crevice in the wall. Examination of five stomachs gave the 

 following results : (i.) ants ; (ii.) termites ; (iii.) cockroach ahd 

 two large wolf (Lycosid) spiders; (iv.) beetle and three bugs 

 (Lijgceus sp.) ; (v.) beetle elytra and millipede rings of 4 mm 

 diameter. The freces of another held the remains of a green 

 bottlelly and a moth. 



I have already drawn attention to the adaptability of this 

 dominant species to all manner of habitats; its activity is also 

 remarkable, as the following note made at Kilosa, 8,vi.21 Avill 

 show :— " A rustle in the roof-gutter and a plop in a bush Vowr 

 Jeet from the gutter, and I was just in time to see a striped skink 

 recover its balance and run quickly down the stalks and stem of 

 a bush till it reached the ground, which it crossed with a rush to 

 the stump of a rubber-tree, np which it darted as if a first-class 

 arboreal sjiecies." 



A Karungu Bay specimen had a large grey cattle t\cV{? lihipice- 

 phalus sinus Koch) attached to, and completely blocking up, the 

 ear-opening. lied acarine parasites were also abundant about 

 anus, groin, axilla, and ear. 



