LACEETA MUEALTS IN WESTERN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA. 



399 



the eye and the tympanum. The hind limb extends to midway between the collar 

 and the ear ; the foot measures once and one-third the length of the head. The scales 

 on the back are granular, oval-hexagonal, distinctly keeled ; 3 and 4 transverse series 

 correspond to one ventral plate, and 45 to the length of the head. 



The body and the limbs are olive above (in spirit) with black spots forming a wide- 

 meshed network; no distinct ocellar spot above the axil; the head is much spotted 

 with black above, and a black streak runs along the sides, passing through the eye and 

 above the tympanum, and continued on the neck ; tail with blackish transverse bands 

 with sharply defined white spots on the sides. The throat and belly are greyish white, 



with small black spots. 



Text-fis. 6. 



a. b. c. d. e. 



Young specimens of: — a, f. typiea, Courmayeur, Piedmont : b, var. nigriventris, Rome ; c, var. campestris, Turin : 



d, var. serpa, Pompeii ; e, var. serpa, Messina. 



V.— MALTA. 

 (Plate XXVII.) 



The "Wall-Lizard of Malta has been identified by Bedriaga and myself with the 

 Sicilian and South-Italian form (var. serpa), by Camerano with the typical form, while 

 Eimer regards it as intermediate between the two. I regard Eimer's view as 

 perfectly correct if size and coloration alone are taken into consideration, but the 

 scaling is decidedly that" of var. serpa. 



Eimer, Arch. f. Nat. 1881, p. 370, who has observed the lizard in Malta, remarks as 

 follows : — 



"It is remarkably small for a Southern form, not larger than the Corsican [var. 

 quadrilineata], which is not much larger than the German. Besides, it is platycephalous 

 [like the typical form] and belongs to the reticulata type, more or less nigriventris, the 

 neck, the sides, and the posterior part of the belly being more or less spotted with 

 black. However little the latter character may be marked, it is, however, highly note- 

 worthy that it should, as so frequently in North Italy, coincide with the reduction of 



vol. xvn. — part iv. No. 7. — October, 1905. :; Q 



