352 ME. G. A. BOULENGEK ON THE VARIETIES OF 



have been able to have access to type specimens. For this purpose I have been 

 fortunate in being allowed to utilise the collection of M. F. Lataste, which has been 

 entrusted to my care, and to compare many of the type specimens described by 

 Dr. de Bedriaga, which have been acquired for the British Museum since the publication 

 of the ' Catalogue of Lizards.' I am also greatly indebted to Count Peracca for friendly 

 criticism and much important material in connection with this work, and to Dr. 

 de Bedriaga, Prof. Camerano, Dr. Gestro, Dr. Werner, Dr. Vinciguerra, Prof. Monticelli, 

 M. F. Doumergue, the Rev. Fathers G. Fournier and T. Neve, Dr. Gadow, M. Dollo, 

 Sr. A. Ferrer, Hr. Lorenz Midler, Dr. J. Roux, Mr. Bryan Hook, and Prof. I. Bolivar 

 for loan or gift of specimens. 



This paper does not profess to be a monograph : it is simply a contribution to our 

 knowledge of these Lizards studied in relation to their distribution, a continuation of 

 the excellent accounts given in similar manner by Bedriaga in the seventies of last 

 century — with this difference, however, that the lepidosis is described with greater 

 precision. It deals only with the western parts of Europe, including Italy, and with 

 North Africa ; the Lizards of Europe east of the Adriatic, and of South-western Asia, 

 are at present being studied by Dr. Werner, Hr. Lehrs, and Prof. v. Mehely, and it is 

 better to await the conclusion of their labours before preparing for publication the 

 results of my examination of these Lizards, which I propose, however, to furnish ere 

 long. When this is done, I hope to be able to summarise the whole subject in a 

 strictly systematic order. 



In order to ensure absolute accuracy, the figures illustrating this paper are 

 reproductions of photographs, on which great pains have been bestowed by my 

 excellent artist, Mr. J. Green. The coloured Plates have, of course, been prepared 

 from living specimens. 



I.— CENTRAL EUROPE. 



(Plates XXIV. & XXV.) 



All the specimens from which the following description is drawn up belong to what 

 may be called the typical form in its narrowest sense, the species Lacerta muralis 

 having been established by Laurenti 1 upon specimens from the vicinity of Vienna, 

 where, as is well ascertained 2 , no definable varieties occur. In order to have before 

 me " topotypes " of the species, I applied to my friend Dr. Werner, who, with his usual 

 kindness, at once sent me two specimens, a male and a female. Very curiously, the 

 latter turns out to be the most aberrant example, so far as the scaling is concerned, 

 which I have found among the hundreds of specimens examined by me from France, 

 Belgium, Western Germany, Switzerland, and various parts of Austro- Hungary, and 



1 Syn. Kept. p. 61, pi. i. fig. 4 (1768). — Se-ps muralis. 

 ' Werner, Eept. u. Araph. Oesterr. Ung. p. 40 (1897). 



