EREMIAS GUTTULATA. 181 
It will be observed that the highest number of scales met with in the Suakin-Durrur 
district is 52, and the lowest 42. In the valley of the Nile the scales may fall as low 
as 47 and rise to 60. Although the difference between 52 and 60 is considerable, still 
there can be no question as to the specific identity of lizards from the Suakin-Durrur 
district presenting the lowest lepidosis with those from the Nile valley with the highest 
number of scales. As some of the Suakin-Durrur lizards are sandy-coloured, with dark 
and pale longitudinal streaks and black and white spots on the back, the contrast that 
they present to the typical form, more especially when the latter is of a bluish-green 
tint and almost immaculate (compare figs. 3 and 4 on Plate XXIII.), is most striking. 
The difference of coloration between these two extremes, as in the great gap between 
42 and 60 scales, is thoroughly bridged over by other individuals presenting inter- 
mediate characters. I have therefore had no course left me but to regard all the 
lizards tabulated as specifically identical. In arriving at this conclusion I have, thanks 
to the courtesy of Mr. Boulenger, been enabled to examine the type of E. martini, 
Blgr., from Obok, which does not appear to me to be separable from this species. 
Among 97 specimens in the accompanying table (pp. 177-180), all of African or 
Asiatic origin, 36 have been ascertained to be males, and 56 to be females. The largest 
male measures 49 millim. from snout to vent, whereas out of the remainder only 7 of 
them attain to 47 millim. ; while on the other hand 11 of the females are over 50 millim. 
in length, one even reaching 56 millim. long. The insular variety from the island of 
Socotra appears to attain to a slightly larger size, and, moreover, it is somewhat more 
robust than the typical form, and has the ocular disk quite as much broken up as in 
the Suakin-Durrur individuals. 
As any variation in the position of the nasals is rare, it may be mentioned that in 
one of the specimens from Suakin (Plate XXIII. fig. 4) the posterior nasal is excluded 
from entering into the free margin of the nostril. The normal number of loreals is 
two, but in one individual I have observed as many as four, viz. two anteriorly, one 
above the other, behind the nasals, and two in longitudinal series following them. 
Another variation of these shields is three in a line, but this also has been noticed 
only in a single instance ; and another abnormality is for the frontonasal to send down 
a process separating the two loreals. In one individual from Mount Sinai there are 
two frontonasals, one before the other — a quite abnormal condition. 
I have examined the condition of the transparent palpebral disk in 99 specimens 
from North Africa, Asia, and the island of Socotra. In the plain of Suez, the 
Maryut District, and the desert at Heluan the disk is divided into five pieces, two in 
longitudinal series corresponding to the upper half of the disk, with three similarly 
arranged but much smaller pieces below them, while in one, from the last-mentioned 
locality, the lower section of the disk is divided into four pieces. In one specimen 
from the plain of Kafr Gamus the disk is divided vertically in its middle, thus resolving 
it into two lateral portions. This form of disk occurs in 24 out of 25 specimens from 
