278 Laeertidse. 



describer's statement that it very closely approaciies L. caucasica, 

 althougli placed in a different species. Better titan any others, I think, 

 the Caucasian lizards show the] fallacy of the modern craze for 

 multiplying species and subspecies. 



Var. CHALTBDEA. 



Lacerta chalybdea, Eichwald, Zool. Spec, iii, p. 188 (1831), and 

 Eeise Kasp. Meer. i, pt. 2, p. 745 (1837) ; Bouleng. P. Z. S. 1904, 

 ii, p. 337. 



Zootoca chalybdea, Eichwald, Faun. Casp.-Cauc. p. 73, pi. xi, figs. 1-3 

 (1841). 



Nucras ? chalybdea, Gray, Cat. Liz. p. 34 (1845). 



Lacerta muralis fusca, var. saxicola, part., Bedriaga, Abh. Senck. 

 Ges. xiv, 1886, p. 195. 



Lacerta muralis, part., Derjugin, Ann. Mus. Zool. St. Petersb. vi, 



1901, p. 97; Nikolsky, Herp. Eoss. p. 130 (1905). 



Lacerta depressa (non Camer.), Werner, Sitzsb. Ak. Wien, cxi, i, 



1902, p. 1086, pi. iii, figs. 9, 10. 



Lacerta saxicola, subsp. bithynica et armeniaca, Mehely, Ann. Mus. 

 Hung, vii, 1909, p. 537, pi. xxi, fig. 7, and p. 649, pi. xxi, fig. 8. 



Lacerta saxicola armeniaca, Nikolsky, Herp. Caucas.p. 78 (1918). 



Lacerta muralis, var. chalybdea, Bouleng. Tr. Zool. Soc. xx, 1913, 

 p. 187, pi. xxii, figs. 1, 2. 



Form rather stout, head and body much flattened ; limbs short, 

 the hind limb reaching the axil or the elbow of the adpressed fore 

 limb in the male, the wrist or the elbow in the female ; foot not or 

 but slightly longer than the head. Head flat above, nearly once and 

 a half as long as broad, its depth equalling the distance between the 

 centre or the posterior border of the eye and the anterior border of 

 the tympanum ; snout obtusely pointed. 



Rostral not entering the nostril ; suture between the nasals very 

 short, or* rostral forming a suture with the frontonasal ; a single 

 postnasal ; frontal as long as its distance from the end of snout ; 

 series of granules between the supraoculars and the superciliai'ies 

 usually incomplete (3 to 8)t; interparietal long and narrow, usually 



* In 4 out of tlie 18 specimens examined. 



t Complete in a male from Mesopotamia and in a male and two females from 

 Van. In a female from Mesopotamia the suture between the first and second 

 superciliaries is distinctly oblique. 



