LACERTA MURALIS IN "WESTERN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA. 387 



form, very strongly defined and forming nearly complete annuli, separated by brown 

 interspaces ; the regenerated portion, as in all Wall-Lizards, with black and light 

 longitudinal streaks, strikingly contrasting with the annular markings of the 

 primary tail. 



The markings are the same in the young as in the adult. 



Male specimens from Rome are figured on PL XXII. figs. 4-6, and a young one on 

 text-fig. 6 b, p. 399. 



Replying to my enquiries respecting the distribution of L. muralis typica and 

 var. brueggemanni in Italy, my friend Count Peracca kindly informs me that he 

 received alive, many years ago, a lizard, apparently answering to the var. brueggemanni, 

 from Naples, which specimen has appeared in Camerano's list, but has since been 

 mislaid 1 . He has since made many excursions about Naples without rediscovering 

 such a variety, nor has he found any other than the serpa or neapolitana variety south 

 of Naples even at altitudes of 1000 metres or above. In Liguria he found the 

 var. brueggemanni, with lemon-yellow or green back, only near the sea ; on the hills, 

 from 100 metres upwards, only the ordinary grey-brown typical form. In the Arno 

 Valley the var. brueggemanni follows the plain which extends inland rather far from 

 the sea, and it even penetrates as far up as Florence, where, however, specimens inter- 

 mediate between it and the typical form occur. 



Much remains to be done in ascertaining the exact range of the typical form, the 

 var. brueggemanni, and the var. nigriventris in Italy, and how far the three are capable 

 of satisfactory definition. My own impression is that the first two intermix, in 

 Liguria at least, where the southern and northern forms meet in the same localities, 

 and that the same will be found to be the case between the second and third forms 

 when we come to know more of the lizards occurring between Florence and 

 Rome. 



It has often been stated that the serpa or neapolitana form can be readily distin- 

 guished from the typical form by the shape of the head and the general proportions. 

 How vague these differences are in most cases is well shown by these large lizards of 

 the nigriventris variety, referred by some to the typical form, by others to the 

 "neapolitana" form. And the resemblance to the latter is emphasised by a com- 

 parison with the black Filfola lizard, which is regarded as derived from the Maltese 

 " neapolitana." And yet there can be no doubt that the var. nigriventris is only an 

 exaggeration of the var. brueggemanni, which is itself completely connected with the 

 typical form of Northern Italy and Central Europe. As often happens in these lizards, 

 the var. nigriventris has acquired with its larger size a finer scaling, which approaches 



1 As noticed above, a specimen from Mount Meta, not far from tbc Province of Naples, Las been sent to mo 

 on loan by Prof. Monticelli. 



