Lacerta. 231 



GrROTjp ],II. — Italy, Tuscan Archipelago, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, 

 Tunisia, and Minorca. 



This group includes the vars. hedriagm and sardoa, in which the 

 head and body are very strongly depressed (although not more so 

 than in certain forms of G-roups IV and V), and a few others which 

 fiU up the gap between them and the typical L. muralis. Although 

 the extremes are so different, I feel sure this is a natural association, 

 and that the resemblance which the var. bedriagas bears to L. oxycephala 

 is merely a case of convergence. 



Although the shape of the head varies individually in the vars. 

 nigriventris, insulanica, and tiliguerta, these lizards as a whole answer 

 to the platycephali of Eimer, and whilst the more primitive pattern of 

 coloration in the vars. brueggemanni and tiliguerta pertains to the 

 maculata-striata type of the same author, the great majority of them 

 fall under his reticulata and tigris types, which are the exception in 

 the first group. 



The var. brueggemanni is so completely linked with the typical 

 form in the north of its habitat as to render the distinction arbitrary 

 in some cases, and farther south it is hardly to be separated from the 

 vars. nigriventris and insulanica. Although strikingly different in their 

 extremes, these varieties are not susceptible of satisfactory definitions. 



Var. brueggemanni, Bedr. — Scales feebly but distinctly keeled, 61 

 to 65 across the body; 17 to 25 femoral pores; 23 to 29 lamellar 

 scales under the fourth toe ; colour usually green above ; belly usually 

 with large black spots. — Italy and Elba. 



Var. nigriventris, Bp. — Scales distinctly keeled, 56 to 73 across the 

 body ; 16 to 25 femoral pores ; 24 to 31 lamellar scales under the 

 fourth toe ; black predominating above and beneath. — Rome, Naples. 



Var. insulanica, Bedr. — Scales feebly but distinctly keeled, 60 to 

 74 across the body ; 18 to 26 femoral pores ; 26 to 33 lamellar scales 

 under the fourth toe ; belly spotted with black at least on the sides, 

 the black sometimes predominating above and beneath. — Pianosa near 

 Elba. 



Var. tiliguerta, G-m. — Scales feebly but distinctly keeled, 60 to 82 

 across the body ; 20 to 28 femoral pores ; 28 to 37 lamellar scales 

 under the fourth toe ; anterior upper temporal shield often in contact 

 with fourth supraocular ; belly without black spots. — Islands of the 

 G-ulf of Tuscany, Sardinia, Sicily, Pantellaria, Tunis, Minorca. 



Var. bedriagx, Camer. — Scales smooth, 58 to 84 across the body ; 19 



