86 Laeertidie. 



streak may be interrupted* or absent, f or the light markings may be 

 reduced to the lateral series in the form of spots. % With age small 

 dark spots or marblings appear on the head and body, and the light 

 streaks or spots acquire dark brown or black edges. 



In the adult, the light markings usually disappear § and, although 

 the brown colour is exceptionally retained (var. /wsca, Bedriaga||), the 

 upper parts assume a bright green or yellow (var. aurata, Bedr.) 

 colour and the dark spots or marblings break up into a fine black 

 puncticulation, usually one black dot on every scale of the body and 

 limbs, one or several, or a black vermiculation, on the scales of the 

 tail, which is brown at least in its posterior third ; the head is brown 

 or green with blackish vermiculations, or dark olive on the pileus with 

 very crowded green dots or vermiculations. End of tail often reddish. 

 The evolution of these markings is the same as in the speckled 

 specimens of the typical form. Under the name of var. subocellata, 

 Schreiber mentions Dalmatian examples with a lateral series of 6 blue 

 spots. The lower parts are yellow, sometimes speckled or vermiculate 

 with black on the outer or the two outer ventral plates. Never any 

 blue on the sides of the head or on the throat. 



I have examined two female melanic specimens, blackish above but 

 showing the black markings after preservation in spirit, yellow 

 beneath. One, from Dalmatia, was exhibited in our Zoological 

 Grardens, the other was purchased of a dealer, F. Henkel, as from 

 Klosterneuburg, near Vienna — no doubt an erroneous locality. 



This form is knowm to attain a total length of over half a metre. 



1. 2. 3. 4. 



Measurements (in millimetres) : 

 From end of snout to vent . 



„ ,, fore limb 



Length of head . 

 Width of head 

 Depth of head 



* Zara. 



t Smyrna. 



J Albania, Athens, L. Stymphalos, Syra.— Also reported by "VVeruer (1894) 

 from the Ionian Islands. 



§ Very distinct traces of three dorsal streaks persist in a male from Dalmatia 

 measuring 126 millim. from snout to vent, and Werner (1894) has recorded 

 adult quinquestriated females from Dalmatia and Corfu. Werner is evidently 

 wrong when he concludes, from the fact that he has come across young 

 with and without the streaks, that the former are probably females and the 

 latter males. 



II From Milos. 



