HEMIDACTYLUS FLAVIVIEIDIS. 79 
from the Hadramut, the length of the latter is largely due to the length of its tail, and 
that its head and body are actually 13 millim. shorter than the Pinang individual. 
It is common in houses at Suez and Suakin, and occurs also at Kosseir. In Egypt 
it has never been observed as yet in any inland town. 
It is generally seen after sundown hunting for insects on the walls, but I have seen 
it similarly occupied inside houses in the middle of the day. When disturbed it emits 
a sound which can only be described as a kind of squeak. 
Although the lamellae are arranged in two lateral groups, they begin distally by a 
single lamella, and in the first digit of the hind foot they, as a rule, end proximally 
in two azygos lamellae in the mesial line, and in the fifth digit of the same foot in one. 
The following is the arrangement of the paired lamellae taken from one individual, 
beginning with the first digit : — 
7 
9 
10 
10 
9 
10 
11 
10 
8 
In only two of the individuals obtained by me are the femoral pores symmetrically 
arranged. Seven is the highest and six the lowest number, but in India there may be 
as many as nine and as few as five pores. 
The colour of this lizard, according to Dr. Stoliczka, " changes very rapidly during 
life ; sometimes the transverse bands turn almost to blackish brown, and another time 
they become quite obsolete." 
The species was first described by Riippell from specimens obtained at Massowah ; 
but in the following year, 1836, Dumeril and Bibron redescribed it as H. coctcei, from 
specimens received by them from Bengal and Bombay. Some years ago, Mr. Boulenger 
examined the types of H. flaviviridis, Riippell, preserved in the Frankfort Museum, 
and arrived at the conclusion that they were identical with H. coctwi. Prof. Boettger, 
with a specimen of the so-called //. coctcei from Bombay and the types of this species 
before him, arrived at a similar result, which likewise happened in my case, when I 
compared the foregoing specimens together, in 1893, being at the time quite unaware 
of Mr. Boulenger's and Prof. Boettger's observations. 
Dumeril and Bibron in their description of the genus Hemidactylus ' direct attention 
to RiippeH's H. flaviviridis, which they say appeared to them to be distinct from all 
of the species described in their third volume ; but at the same time they do not include 
it as a species, and add that it ought to occupy a place alongside of II. coctcei, because 
" ce Saurien lui ressemble par la forme de ses doigts et de sa queue, aussi bien que par 
les ecailles uniformes que revetent les parties superieures de son corps." 
It is thus quite evident that their term H. coctcei must give precedence to 
H. flaviviridis. 
To Massowah, Bengal, and Bombay, Cantor, in 1847, added Pinang as another 
1 Erpet. Gen. iii. 1836, p. 347. 
