174 ME. G. A. BOTJLENGEE ON THE 



size is larger than usual in var. fiiimana. The temporal scutellation is variable, and 

 the masseteric disk may be absent, but as a rule it is large and in contact with the 

 anterior supratemporal. The occipital is usually small or very small, and is sometimes 

 pointed in front, or even separated from the interparietal, a feature which appears to 

 be the rule in the black form occurring on Melisello. Only one specimen has 5 

 anterior labials, and on one side only. The scales on the back are distinctly 

 keeled ; they may slightly increase in size and completely lose the keels on the lower 

 part of the flanks ; the caudal scales are truncate rather than pointed. 



Measurements (in millimetres) : — 



Lissa. Lagosta. 



6- d. ?• 



From end of snout to vent 65 64 53 



„ „ „ fore limb ... 24 33 18 



Head 16 16 13 



Width of head 10 11 8 



Depth of head 8 8 6 



Fore limb 33 31 17 



Hind limb 35 34 37 



Foot 19 18 15 



Tail 130 116 95 



A male from Lissa (one of the types), and one from Lagosta, are figured on PL XIX. 

 figs. 8 & 9. 



Var. MELISELLENSIS. 



(Melisello and St. Andrea, near Lissa.) 



Lacerta melisellensis Braun, Arb. Zool. Inst. Wiirzb. iv. 1877, p. 49, pi. ii. fig. 4. 



Lacerta muralis, var. melisellensis Bedriaga, Nature, xx. 1879, p. 481. 



Lacerta muralis fusca, var. melisellensis Bedriaga, Abh. Senck. Ges. xiv. 1886, p. 197. 



Lacerta muralis neapolitana, var. merremi [melisellensis) Werner, Verb, zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xli. 



1891, p. 754, and Rept. Amph. Oesterr.-Ung. p. 44 (1897). 

 Lacerta serpa, var. melisellensis Werner, Verb, zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, lii. 1902, p. 386. 

 Lacerta litoralis, var. lissana, forma melisellensis, Soberer, Bl. f. Aq.- u. Terr.-K. xy. 1904, p. 193, fig. 

 Lacerta serpa, var. galvagnii Werner, Mitth. Naturw. Ver. Univ. Wien, vi. 1908, p. 49. 



There are few better examples of the difficulty of discriminating between the races 

 of Lacerta muralis, which are so emphatically proclaimed by some authors to be 

 entitled to specific rank, than that afforded by the black lizard of the Melisello Rock 

 near Lissa, first described by Prof. Max Braun as L. melisellensis. 



The view entertained by Bedriaga that the Melisello lizard is a black insular race of 

 the typical L. muralis (his L. muralis fusca) would, in the light of our present 

 information, be highly surprising, since it has been shown that the latter does not 

 exist on Lissa nor on any of the islands off the coast of Dalmatia. Later, however, 

 Werner and Lehrs pronounced it to be merely a melanic form of the var. neajjolitana 

 or serjpa, which, at Capri, produces the L. coerulea or far aglioimisis. 



