94 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
M. occidentals Pet. — Resembles trivittata in general habit, but differs 
in respect to the character of the ear lobules, and it has no dark cross bands 
or spots on the back. 
M. gruetzneri Pet. — This species was described from the Transvaal 
in 1869, and so far as I know has not been taken again, with one possible 
exception. In Zool. Jahrb., 1907, p. 431, Dr. Jean Roux records the 
species from the Pretoria District (Coll. Dr. Breyer), and remarking that 
the specimens do not altogether agree with the description given in the 
British Museum Catalogue, he enumerates the characters of the species 
as exhibited by those specimens. But the combination of characters 
therein cited seems to me to differ in no essential respect from those of 
trivittata, a species which is subject to much variation in almost all the 
characters ordinarily employed in specific description. The Transvaal 
Museum has a very long series of trivittate mabuias, collected from various 
parts of the Transvaal and of South Africa, but I have found it quite 
impossible to split up into two species the collection of mabuias which 
have the three pale longitudinal bands, and the numerous dark-brown 
transverse bands of M. trivittata. 
M. striata. Pet. — The condition of the subocular varies considerably ; 
often it may be completely cut off from the lip, and at other times it 
encroaches thereon so much that the labial margin of this scute is about 
half the total length of the scute. The reduction of the subocular is 
relatively greatest in the adults, and especially in very large specimens. 
In old specimens of this species the adpressed limbs scarcely meet. As a 
general rule the prefrontals are separated, but occasionally they form a 
suture in the mid-line. The parietals may or may not form a suture behind. 
This is the common domestic lizard of Pretoria, being abundant in the 
immediate neighbourhood of houses. The house form does not reach the 
large size of the same species on the veld. 
M. sulcata Pet. — This species much resembles M. striata ; the two 
species are ’to be distinguished by the characters of the hind limb, the 
fronto-nasal scute, and the carination of the dorsal scales. But in a young 
specimen of sulcata from Bechuanaland (Albany Museum), marked with 
the six dark longitudinal stripes dorsally, the dorsal scales are only tri- 
carinate, and in juvenile examples the character of the elongation of the 
hind limb is unavailable. An adult specimenJrom Victoria West (presented 
to the Albany Museum by Mr. P. D. Morris) has its dorsal scales tricarinate 
throughout, and the adpressed hind-limb barely reaches the axil. According 
to Bro. J. H Power the black individuals are male and the striped ones 
female. 
M. quinquetaeniata Licht. — In a large series of specimens the parietals 
form a suture behind the interparietal, and only in one case are they 
separated by a small scale. But the prefrontals may or may not form a 
suture. The subdigital lamellae are invariably smooth. Colour : in 
younger specimens, blackish-brown above, with three yellowish-white 
longitudinal bands, the lateral band starting from over the eye ; tail 
bluish. The adults vary considerably. The females are uniformly brown 
or olive brown above, with a white spot near the apex of each scale, with 
