1905.] BATRACHIAXS ASD REPTILES. 249 



In the present uncertainty as to the distinction of species in 

 this genus, the clistribvition of JT. kevis is difficult to trace. This 

 species appears to be found all over South Africa where there is 

 water, and it extends as far noi-th as Angola to the West and 

 Abyssinia to the East, the British Museum possessing specimens, 

 which I cannot separate from the typical form, from Lake Mwei-u, 

 Uganda, and Senafe. 



Angola specimens {X.jyetersii Bocage), which have been referred 

 either to X. Icevis or to X. muellei'i by Giinther, by Peters, and 

 by myself, cannot be separated, by any character that I can 

 detect, from X. Icevis. I have examined eight specimens, one 

 from Benguella, received from Prof. Barboza du Bocage himself, 

 five from Pongo Andongo, obtained by Dr. Ansorge, and two from 

 T3r. Welwitsch's Angola collection. Bocage gives the length of 

 the Angola specimens as not exceeding 65 millim. from snout to 

 vent, but one of Welwitsch's specimens measures 80. 



In the typical X. Icevis from )South Afiica the subocular 

 tentacle measures less than one-third the diameter of the eye, and 

 is sometimes reduced to a mere tubercle, the inner metatarsal 

 tubercle is very blunt and feebly prominent, never conical, and 

 vomerine teeth are constantly absent. 



The true X. micelleri, as described and figured by Peters in his 

 ' Reise nach Mossambique,' vol. iii. (1882), has the tentacle more 

 than half as long as the eye, the metatarsal tubercle more 

 prominent, more conical than in X. Icevis, and vomerine teeth, 

 first noticed by Toi-nier, are often present. In addition to 

 Mozambique, whence it was first described, this species is found 

 in Nyasaland and on Zanzibar and the opposite coast. 



To distinguish between X. muelleri and X. Icevis is, however, 

 not so easy as one might at first think, for the British Museum 

 has received from Mr. C. S. Betton three specimens from hot 

 springs near Lake Nakui'o, British East Afi'ica, which agree with 

 the former in the prominent, conical metatarsal tubercle, and 

 with the latter in the short tentacle and the absence of vomerine 

 teeth. 



A", clivii described from Erythrtea by Peracca, and obtained in 

 numerous examples at Addis Ababa and Ashoofi, Abyssinia, 

 by Mr, E. Degen, agrees with X. Icevis in the proportions, in the 

 shoi't tentacle, and in the absence of vomerine teeth, but is easily 

 distinguished by the inner metatarsal tubercle being armed with 

 a black claw, as in X. ccdcctratits, which inhabits Liberia, Lagos, 

 Nigeria, Cameroon, the Gaboon, and the Congo. In the males of 

 X. clivii the brown nu.ptial asperities, instead of being restricted 

 to the inner side of the fore limbs, as in X. Icevis, extend as 

 a large patch on each side of the breast. 



Two specimens from '• West Africa," collected by Mr. Eraser, 

 therefore probably from ISTigeria or Fernando Po, which have been 

 referred by Dr. Giinther and by myself to X. muelleri in the 

 British Museum Catalogue, agree with that sjDCcies in the size of 

 the eye, the length of the tentacle, and the presence of vomerine 



