192 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
'Colouration : Olive brown above with a double series of large dark spots. 
(A light vertebral stripe extending on to the tail sometimes present.) 
Under surface grey, throat with dark blue reticulations. 
Records : I, Bandolier Kop, Zoutpansberg, 1906, Gough (Plate XIX, figs. 
3, 4). 
13. AGAMA ATRA. BAUD. 
Plates XXII, XXIII, XXIV. 
Dorsal scales imbricate, strongly keeled and mucronate, largest on vertebral 
line, intermixed with scattered, somewhat enlarged, scales. 
Head covered with smooth, sometimes convex, scales. 
Groups of short spines on the sides of the head, near the ear, and on the 
neck. 
Nostrils tubular, directed upwards and backwards, on the canthus rostralis. 
Crest distinct on neck (and on the tail in adult males). 
Ventrals smooth, imbricate. 
Rows around body 120-180. 
Fingers : Fourth slightly longest, fifth projecting beyond first. 
Toes : Third and fourth sub-equal, or fourth slightly longest, fifth 
extending well beyond first. 
Tail rounded in young and in female, strongly compressed in male, caudal 
scales much larger than dorsals, strongly keeled and mucronate. 
Anal pores in a single row. 
Scales on the upper surface of the limbs larger than the dorsals. 
Colouration very variable. In my specimens a light vertebral stripe is 
usually present. Adults from Woodbush are grey above, marbled with 
darker, sometimes with a row of large dark blotches on each side of 
the vertebral line, edges of belly brick red, under surfaces grey, diffused 
with blue, under surface of throat reticulated with blue. Other speci- 
mens are dark olive brown above, with a yellow vertebral stripe and a 
few small yellow spots above, under surfaces yellow, throat and chest 
bluish, young often brown, widely reticulated with orange, grey 
beneath. 
Remarks : Agama atra is a species with a very wide range of variation, as 
is proved by the creation of the synonymic species A. micropholis and 
A. microterolepis by Matschie and Boulenger. The specimens at my 
disposal can be divided into several groups according to colouration. 
Records : 
A. Light greyish specimens (as described from Woodbush). 
1-4 (Adults) Woodbush, Zoutpansberg Nil, 1907, Gough ( Plate 
XXII). 
5 (Half-grown male, tail not compressed), Heidelberg, Tvl., XII, 
1906, Howard (Plate XXIV, fig. 3). 
B. Dark brown specimens, with orange vertebral stripe and small 
orange spots, under surfaces bluish anteriorly, dirty yellow 
posteriorly. 
6 (Adult male) Transvaal, 1906, Coll. Ross. 
7 (Adult male) Hanover, C.C., Taylor (tail strongly com- 
pressed). 
