Lacerta. 309 



Particulars of Specimens Examined. 

 1. 

 <? 162 



150 

 124 

 81 

 ? 155 



152 

 „ P.M. 140 



Columns as on p. 175. 



Habitat. — Lacerta jayakari, named after its discoverer, the late 

 Surgeon-Major A. S. G-. Jayakar, is only known from Muscat, Arabia. 



This is the giant of the L. muralis group. In conformity with the 

 frequent if not absolutely general rule in this genus that in allied 

 forms an increase in size is accompanied by a finer scaling (L. agilis 

 — viridis — ocellata, L. muralis typica — hrueggem,anni — nigriventris 

 — hedriagee) the size of the scales is so much reduced as to render the 

 definition of this species by a numerical formula extremely easy. It 

 is true that the same high number of scales across the body and of 

 plates in the collar is reached in L. muralis, var. lilfordi, but the 

 number of gular scales remains lower (40 the maximum), the temporal 

 scales are larger, there are fewer longitudinal rows of ventral plates 

 and anterior labials, and the postnasal is single. 



I regard L. Isevis as the nearest ally of L. jayakari. The greater 

 •difference in the general proportions between the two sexes, the shorter 

 head, the coarser lepidosis, the presence of a large masseteric shield, 

 the number of ventral plates and of femoral pores, and the pattern 

 •of markings are the most striking characters distinguishing the former 

 from the latter, which is one of the most sharply defined species of the 

 genus Lacerta. But I do not suggest a derivation of L. jayakari from 

 L. Isevis ; I imagine these two species and L. danfordii to have been 

 independently evolved out of forms closely related to L. brandtii, nearly 

 .all the characters of which appear to support such an assumption. 



24. LACEETA DANFOEDII. 



Zootoca danfordi, Grunth. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 818, fig. 



Lacerta danfordi, Bedriaga, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 1879, p. 30 ; 

 Bouleng. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 741 ; Bedriaga, Abh. Senck. Gres. 

 xiv, 1886, p. 259 ; Bouleng. Cat. Liz. iii, p. 37, pi. i, fig. 2 (1887) ; 

 Boettg. Sitzb. Ak. Berl. 1888, p. 163 ; Werner, Sitzb. Ak. Wien, cxi, 

 i, 1902, p. 1090, Zool. Anz. xxvii, 1904, p. 255, and Zool. Jahrb., Syst. 



