Lacerta. 155 



bordering the north and west of the Black Sea, extending westwards to 

 Macedonia and Budapest, and L. ionica, from G-reece and the Ionian 

 Islands. Although the extremes are rather different in form and 

 coloration, they are so completely linked as to render a good definition 

 of L. ionica impossible, and I have therefore reduced the latter to the 

 rank of variety, characterized, in its most accentuated form, by a 

 rather longer head with less convex snout, rather longer hind limbs, 

 more numerous femoral pores, and especially by the coloration. As I 

 regard the G-reek-Ionian lizard, in which a vertebral series of black 

 spots sometimes persists, as the more primitive, its coloration is here 

 dealt with first. 



G-reen on the head and neck and on the back, brown on the sides of 

 the body, with a more or less distinct light streak along each side of 

 the back, usually with black spots above and below it, these spots 

 sometimes large, more usually small ; a vertebral series of small black 

 spots occasionally present ; a more or less distinct ocellar spot with 

 blue centre sometimes present above the shoulder ; a pale brown or 

 golden colour forms spots or a band on each side of the posterior part 

 of the body and on the base of the tail ; a more or less distinct light 

 streak from below the eye to the thigh ; fore limbs green, hind limbs 

 and tail brownish grey with light spots. Some specimens are 

 unspotted (var. olivicolor, Schreiber), uniform green, with the sides of 

 the body partly or entirely reddish brown, or green above and olive- 

 brown on the sides, with a whitish dorsolateral line. Belly greenish 

 or yellowish white, or pale yellow, with pale blue spots on the outer 

 ventral plates, which may also bear small black spots. 



In the typical form a brown shade predominates on the upper parts, 

 with the exception of a more or less broad vertebral stripe, which is of 

 a more or less bright green ; a light streak may extend from the outer 

 border of the parietal shield to the base of the tail and another from 

 below the eye to the groin ; the sides of the body outside the green 

 area are more or less spotted or marbled with black, and the black 

 spots may extend across or over the light dorsolateral streaks, which 

 often entirely disappear, especially in males ; a few black spots may be 

 present in the middle of the green area on the nape. In some speci- 

 mens* the black markings predominate over the ground-colour and 

 enclose small whitish spots, whilst in others they are large and few, 

 forming two or three regular series on each side of the body, or small 

 and numerous, or with the upper series confluent into a wavy line 

 bordering inwards the light dorsolateral streak t; in the latter case 



* Males from Hungary. 

 t Male from Eoumania. 



