186 SAURIA. 



over Italy and the South of Switzerland. Is found in Sicily, 

 Greece, Poland, Austria, the Crimea, and Barbary. 



THIED GROUP. Dorsal scales distinctly granular, very 

 close to each other. 



Lacerta ocellata. 



Laoerta ocellata, Dum. et Bib. vol. ii. p. 218; Bhon. Faun. Ital. 



(figured). 

 Lacerta margaritata, Schinz, Europ. Faun. vol. ii. p. 14. 

 The Great Green Lizard. 



Description. — This species is the largest of its genus, and 

 in its general form closely resembles the L. viridis ; the 

 fore-legs do not quite reach to the nostrils, and the hind- 

 legs almost always extend to the shoulders ; the head is 

 one-fourth of the length, measured from the tip of the nose 

 to the root of the tail ; the tail is more than two-thirds of 

 the entire length of the animal; the lower eyelid is scaly; 

 on each side of the palate are twelve small conical teeth. 

 There are two naso-frenal plates, one over the other ; the 

 occipital plate is triangular, as broad, or broader than the 

 frontal plate; the temples are paved with small, nearly 

 equal, polygonal plates, the central one very rarely, a little 

 larger than the others, thus differing from the three pre- 

 ceding species. The scales on the upper parts of the body 

 are smaller than in the L. viridis ; those on the neck are 

 round, on the back slightly oval, and somewhat tectiform. 

 A line drawn across the back, from one margin of the 

 belly to the other, contains sixty-six scales ; the collar is 

 composed of eleven scales ; the ventral plates are in ten 

 rows, the two outer very small, with about twenty plates 

 in each, the other rows with twenty-five or twenty-six 

 plates in each ; the pre-anal plate is large, with a double 

 or triple border of angular plates in front ; femoral pores 



