LACEETA MTJEALIS IN WESTEEN EUEOPE AND NOETH AFEICA. 353 



adds considerably to the ascertained amplitude of variation in the number of dorsal 

 scales and femoral pores. However much all these specimens vary in scaling and 

 coloration, I feel satisfied that further subdivision into local varieties is unfeasible, 

 and that even insular forms such as have been named by R. Blanchard l are not 

 capable of definition. 



Form and Proportions. 



Head about once and a half or once and three-fifths as long as broad, more or less 

 depressed, its depth, in the tympanic region, equal to the distance between the 

 anterior corner, the centre, or the posterior corner of the eye and the anterior border 

 of the tympanum ; snout obtusely pointed. Neck as broad as the head, or slightly 

 constricted. Body rather strongly depressed. Hind limb, in the males, reaching the 

 axil, the shoulder, or the collar ; in the females, reaching the wrist or the elbow of 

 the fore limb laid against the body ; foot once and one-tenth to once and one-third 

 the length of the head, rarely (in males) not longer than the head. 



Tail cylindrical or cyclotetragonal, often slightly flattened at the root, once and two- 

 thirds to twice and one-sixth the length of head and body. 



Scaling. 



Nostril (text-fig. 1) pierced between nasal, postnasal, and first upper labial ; exceptions, 

 in which the rostral enters the nostril, are extremely rare 2 . Nasals usually forming a 



Text-fiff. 1. 



End of snout in two male specimens of Laeerta muralis from the Bies Glacier, near Eanda, Switzerland. 



median suture, variable in extent; rostral rarely in contact with frontonasal 3 ; latter some- 

 times in contact with frontal 4 ; an azygous shield sometimes separates the prefrontals 

 (PL XXV. fig. 2) ; frontal usually as long as its distance from end of snout, often a 



1 .M< ; m. Soc. Zool. France, iv. 1891, p. 502. 



- One specimen from Fontainebleau (Lataste Coll.), and one from the Bies Glacier, near Eanda, 

 Switzerland (altitude 6500 feet). 



3 Four specimens from Eaux-Bonnes, Pyrenees ; 3 (out of 4) from near St. Malo (PI. XXV. fig. 3) ; 2 from 

 near Dinant, Belgium ; single specimens from Paris, Bordeaux, Fontainebleau, GlenaD Isles, and Bazias 

 (»S. Hungary). 



4 Single examples from Bordeaux, Eaux-Bonnes, Glenan Isles, Iferkuleshad, Bo/.en. 



3a2 



