58 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and their colour, but I should feel averse to drawing any inference 

 from this case, unless it could be supported by others. 



A propos of some protectively coloured local races of this 

 species referred to by Dr. Leydig, I have been at some pains to 

 discover the exact locality in his instance of those on the 

 Gebhardsberg, near Lake Constance ; but hitherto without suc- 

 cess. During a visit to the renowned Miocene deposits at 

 Oehningen, on the Ehine, I was no less unfortunate with the 

 protectively-coloured L. agilis he mentions; but this was to 

 be expected, as the sides of the road on which the adaptation to 

 the soil was observed' were quite overgrown at the time. I may 

 note that these quarries, celebrated in their day for Schleuchzer's 

 "homo diluvii testis" and the wonderful Fauna and Flora 

 described by Heer and others, have been entirely covered with 

 vegetation for the last twelve years, so that this site is now-a-days 

 only found with difficulty. It was last worked by an enter- 

 prising Swiss, who established some brick-kilns there, but at 

 present the enthusiastic palaeontologist, if not sufficiently 

 compensated for this disappointment by the scenery, is 

 driven to excavate his own quarry in order to obtain a few 

 specimens. 



The individual variability of this species is great. In a series 

 of males from the Kaiserstuhl the dorsal stripe was of a light 

 brick-red colour : this, however, proved to be not the true var. 

 erythronotus Fitz., prevalent in several chiefly mountainous 

 districts. 



Passing on to isolated cases, one or two males captured at 

 different seasons and localities, were interesting, the upper sur- 

 faces and sides being of a dark gamboge colour, without any 

 traces of green. With the female the sphere of variability is 

 more restricted; one type of coloration not uncommonly met 

 with is greyish green, covered with innumerable black and white 

 dots, and recalling the speckled male variety already alluded to. 

 Another form is of a uniform cinnamon-colour, others again are 

 very prettily marked with rings of reddish brown on a ground of 

 stone-colour. The lower surfaces sometimes assume a rich yellow 

 tinge, and it is noticeable that the female of L. viridis is often 

 coloured in a similar manner. 



L. agilis, as well as the three other species, suffers much 

 from the parasitic Ixodes ricinus. I have counted as many as 



