Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
109 
dorsally. Young are dark-brown, with five wide longitudinal white bands, 
the median bifurcating on the nape ; adults with four longitudinal series 
of irregular black spots or reticulations, sometimes confluent into irregular 
bands, or indistinctly marked as in the young. S. depressa Merr. 
(2) Lower nasal separated from the rostral ; no bandlike supratemporal 
shield. Fronto-nasal separated from the rostral ; three large supra- 
oculars ; dorsal scales smooth between the shoulders, but obtusely keeled 
on the back ; digits keeled inferiorly and strongly fringed laterally. 
Sandy-grey above, with blackish reticulations. S. serripes Pet. 
(B) Snout wedge-shaped ; ventral plates forming oblique longitudinal 
series ; lower nasal forming a suture with the rostral. 
Fronto-nasal not meeting the rostral; a lateral series of enlarged 
keeled scales on posterior part of the back forming a narrow band. Brown 
or orange above, a light dorso-lateral line and a broad dark-brown or red 
lateral band ; the sides and limbs with white spots. 
S. ctenodactyla Smith. 
Fronto-nasal forming a suture with the rostral; no lateral series of 
enlarged scales. Grey or sand-coloured above, with darker network 
enclosing round lighter spots. S. cuneirostris Strauch. 
Notes on certain Species. 
Eremias namaquensis and inornata. — The South African Museum has 
specimens from Steinkopf and Naroep which agree with the description 
of inornata (Zool. Jahrb., 1907, 427). It is closely allied to namaquensis 
and may be only a variety of that species. 
A point of distinction between the two species, according to the 
description, is furnished by the number of ventral scales in a transverse 
row, but out of three specimens of inornata two had ten ventral scales 
and one specimen had twelve, whilst on the other hand, though nama- 
quensis has usually twelve, occasionally specimens appear which have 
only ten, though in other respects they are perfectly typical. However, 
in the series which I examined, the following differences obtained : in 
inornata the. eye scales are of large size, fewer in number, and more trans- 
parent than in namaquensis, where these scales can be described as only 
semi-transparent ; the scales on the tibia are larger and more strongly 
keeled than in namaquensis ; the first supraocular is relatively longer in 
namaquensis. 
The specimens of namaquensis are very constant in coloration ; I 
have only seen one variation, and this had only one pair of dark streaks 
dorsally. 
Eremias pulchella and E. lineocellata. — It is often a matter of no small 
difficulty to decide between these closely allied species when the material 
comes from a locality remote from the home of the typical form. In 
typical specimens of pulchella, as found in Little Namaqualand, the scales 
on the anterior half of the dorsal surface show no trace of keeling, and 
posteriorly they are only obtusely keeled. The colour marking is either 
a black dorso-lateral band or four rows of ocelli or small spots dorsally. 
In other parts of Cape Province the dorsal scales of pulchella may be much 
more pronouncedly keeled, and in a Tulbagh Road specimen (South African 
