68 Lacertidse. 



first (rarely the second) the longer, the first in contact with the fourth 

 supraocular; temple covered with very variable shields," which are 

 usually large and irregular and often include a central or masseteric 

 shield which may be very large ; a curved tympanic shield is often 

 absent, or broken up into two or three, and if present usually separated 

 from the upper temporal by one or two series of small shields.f 



Pterygoids constantly toothed, the teeth in one or two, rarely three 

 series. 



16 to 26 gular scales in a straight line between the symphysis of 

 the chin-shields and the median collar-plate, usually 18 to 22 ; gular 

 fold distinct. Collar strongly serrated, composed of 7 to 12 plates, 

 usually 7 to 10, which may be rather pointed. 



Scales granular on the nape ; on the body elongate-rhombic or 

 hexagonal, juxtaposed or subimbricate, and strongly teeled on the 

 back, sometimes a little smaller on the sides, often a little larger and 

 more and more feebly keeled, or even smooth, towards the ventral 

 shields; 40 to 56 scales, usually 42 to 50, | across the middle of the 

 body ; 2 or 3 lateral scales correspond to a ventral plate ; 20 ( 9 ) to 

 34 ( (J) transverse series of scales, in the middle of the back, corre- 

 spond to the length of the head. Yentral plates overlapping, the 

 edge of the transverse series broken by notches between the plates, 

 in 6, rarely 8, longitudinal series ; the number of longitudinal series 

 sometimes very definite, the lateral scales being abruptly differentiated, 

 sometimes rather diflacult to fix owing to the presence of small shields, 

 which might be regarded as ventrals§ ; 26 to 32 transverse series, 

 26 to 31 in males, 27 to 32 in females; the plates of the second 

 series from the middle line l^ to 24 times as broad as those of the 

 first, 1:1^ to 2 times as broad as those of the third ; the plates of 



* As a rule much larger than in the var. major. Werner (Sitzb. Ak. Wien, 

 cxi, i, 1902, p. 1072) finds 8 to 32 (rarely more than 22) in the typical form and 

 23 to 54 in the latter. It is a tedious task to count all these shields, but I find 

 the difference between the two forms may be as well expi'essed by counting 

 them in a vertical series between the posterior third of the first upper 

 temporal and the upper labials : we then find 2 to 5 shields in the former, and 4 

 to 7 in the latter — an equal degree of overlap. 



t Present and separated from the upper temporal in specimens from Genoa, 

 'Turin, Elba, Lecce, Modica, Sicily, St. Malo, St. Bpain, Cadillac, Prague, 

 Bozen ; in contact with the upper temporal in specimens from Genoa, Spezia, 

 Turin, Znaim, and Herkulesbad. 



t Usually 42-47 in French and Italian specimens, 44-50 in Austrian and 

 Oriental. 



§ I here regard the plates as in 8 series only when the outer form a continuous 

 longitudinal series without the intercalation of scales, as, for instance, in the 

 German specimen figured by Leydig. 



