Lacerta. 181 



«ient ground for retaining that form as a species, which fills in the 

 .gap between the more primitive group of L. agilis — L. viridis and 

 L. muralis, vars. fiumana and campestris. 



The following description differs very little from that of the var. 

 campestris, and it is to me often a matter of difficulty to distinguish 

 small specimens of that form from striated specimens of the present. 

 The lower number of scales across the body combined with rather 

 shorter limbs and a smaller size appear to be the most important 

 diagnostic characters, but there is a considerable overlap. 



Head small, its length 3f to 41 times in length to vent in males, 4^^ 

 to 4f times in females, either flat above, as usual in the typical form, 

 or even more convex than in the var. campestris, its depth equal 

 to the distance between the anterior corner or the centre of the 

 eye and the anterior border of the tympanum, its width 1^ to 

 If in its length ; snout obtusely pointed, as long as or a little longer 

 than postocular part of head. Body not much depressed. The hind 

 limb reaches the axil or the shoulder in males, the wrist or the elbow 

 ■of the adpressed fore limb in females ; foot a little longer than head 

 (up to once and one fourth). Tail If to 2^ length of head and body. 



Eostral shield usually entering the nostril or narrowly separated 

 from it* ; nasals forming a suture behind the rostral ; a single 

 postnasal! ; frontal as long as or a little shorter than its distance from 

 the end of the snout ; a series of granules between the superciliaries 

 and the two principal supraoculars, the first of which is usually in 

 ■contact with the first, or with the first and second, superciliaries ; 

 parietals 1^ to 1^ times as long as broad, nearly always in contact 

 with the upper postocularj ; occipital very variable, usually shorter 

 than and as broad as the interparietal, sometimes narrower, sometimes 

 broader§ ; temporal scales sometimes as small as in a typical L. w,uralis, 



* Exceptions in a male from Gorizia and in one from Brestioa. 



+ Two on one side in a male from Scoglio Supetar. 



t Exceptions in a female from Solta, in one from Gelsa, and in one from 

 Cettinje ; Klaptoez (I.e.) also records an exception in a specimen from 

 Albania. 



§ 2^- times as broad in a male from Zee. In a male from Brestioa the 

 occipital is as long and twice as broad as the interparietal, whilst in a female 

 accompanying it the former shield is barely half as long and half as broad as 

 the latter. A small shield is sometimes intercalated between the interparietal 

 ,and the occipital ; in a male from Bnkovioi and in another from Lussin Id. 

 the parietals meet in a short suture between these tivo shields ; the three 

 ■specimens from the Istrian Karst (E. Sehreiber), which formed part of the 

 Lataste Collection, have a short transverse cleft in the parietal on each side of 

 ■the interparietal. 



