LACEETA MUEALIS IN WESTEEN EUEOPE AND XOETH AFEICA. 38 



coo 



As may be seen from the above-given measurements, the proportions do not differ 

 from those of the typical form ; nor does, as a rule, the shape of the head, although it 

 may be very strongly depressed — its depth, in certain males from Liguria and Pianosa, 

 not exceeding the distance between the eye and the tympanum. The hind limb 

 reaches the shoulder or the collar in males, the axil in females. 



As to the coloration, the passage from the typical form x is so complete that certain 

 specimens may be referred almost equally well to the one form as to the other. For 

 instance, one of the females from Lerici has the black network on the back much broken 

 up and a well-marked light dorso-lateral streak, and would be unhesitatingly classified as 

 /. typica but for the rather large black spots on the belly, arranged in regular longi- 

 tudinal series. For it is frequently the case in this variety that the black spots run 

 together to form longitudinal bands. The dorsal markings are very variable, usually 

 affecting the form of a close network, but sometimes appearing in disconnected blotches 

 or vermicular lines ; a vertebral chain of black spots may be present. Black and white 

 spots form very regular and conspicuous bars on the sides of the tail. 



Dr. Gestro has very kindly sent me a large number of specimens of the Wall-Lizard 

 collected indiscriminately in the immediate vicinity of Genoa ; this series goes far to 

 show the instability of the characters on which the distinction between the var. bruegge- 

 manni and the typical form rests. Some specimens are not at all separable from the 

 latter, while others, of the most vivid grass-green on the back (PI. XXII. fig. 2), answer 

 to the former ; and between these two extremes every possible variation in shade may 

 be followed. A female with the markings as in the typical form, but remarkable for 

 its green back and yellow lower parts, is figured on PL XXII. fig. 3. The back may 

 be coppery brown, or greyish brown, or greenish grey or olive, or green in front and 

 brown behind. The colour of the lower parts varies equally, and irrespective of that 

 of the upper parts. Most specimens are white on the belly, often with a brownish, 

 pinkish, or greenish tinge, uniform or more or less spotted with black ; while in one 

 male specimen with olive-green back the lower parts are copper-red, with black spots 

 confined to the collar-plates and to the two outer rows of ventral plates (PI. XXII. 

 fig. 1). An interrupted or continuous series of turquoise-blue spots is always present 

 on the outermost row of ventral plates. The back, in the males, is always much spotted 

 or reticulated with black or dark brown, and a black vertebral line or regular series of 

 spots is often present; the sides are brown or purplish, with black network, often 

 enclosing round blue or green spots ; a blue, black-edged ocellus is often present above 

 the axil. One of these specimens (PL XXIII. fig. 3) is so strikingly similar in its 

 markings to certain males of the var. guadrilineata that it might easily be mistaken for 

 that variety were it not for the flatter head; and it is noteworthy that its exceptionally 



1 Especially from such individuals as have been named var. nigriventris (nun Bonaparte,) by De Betta, Erp. 

 Vcnet. p. 154 (1857). 



vol. xvii. — part iv. No. 5. — October, 1905. 3e 



