EUPREPES OLIVIERII. 
This species occurs throughout the whole of Southern Africa, but not so abundantly 
within the boundaries of the Cape Colony as beyond them. It inhabits dry, arid situations 
especially where the surface of the ground is thickly strewed with large stones, and in 
localities so circumstanced is often observed passing quickly between the stones, and when 
frightened seeking concealment under them. 
The majority of the individuals I procured were either small, like that represented in 
Fig. 5, or a little larger, about or exceeding in size, Fig. 4. The remarkable preponderance 
of the smaller individuals, so different to what is observed in the case of other species of the 
group, led me to expect they were adults of a distinct species ; but a careful examina- 
tion of their characters, and those of a size even larger than that represented, Fig. 3 
furnished no evidence to justify their being viewed as distinct from the lattei, which aie 
nowhere observed in anything like the same number. If the conclusion to which I have 
arrived be the correct one, I think it probable the latter may be a permanent variety, and 
I am the more inclined to hold this opinion from having noticed first that the smaller indi- 
viduals have usually the sides, close to the abdomen of a dull vermilion red colour, whereas 
that tint is never observed in the larger ones ; and, secondly, that the ova of the female, and 
the testes of the male in the small specimens, are found during the breeding season even 
more developed in proportion than in the larger individuals, evidently the result of a special 
influence which does not operate at other periods of the year, as may be seen by examining 
either sex after or before the breeding season. 
With reference to this fact, I have examined many individuals of Euprepes Meremii, Dum. 
and Bib.* Scincus trivittatus, Cuv.,‘f" a common lizard, in gardens at Cape Town, but have 
never found any of them prepared to propagate their species before they had nearly reached 
their full size. In support of the probability of the existence of a permanent variety of a 
smaller size, I may mention that such a variety does actually occur in the case of a species of 
Ploceus, which inhabits South Africa to the northward of the Cape Colony. In the districts in 
which these birds occur, individuals exist in abundance, differing in no respect from othei s with 
which they are associated, except in being one-third smaller. Both build their nests on the 
same reeds, construct them in the same manner, and give them the same foi m, the only diffei 
ence is the nests of the one are considerably smaller than those of the other. I he eggs of both 
kinds are also of the same colour, but those of the small variety are distinctly inferior in size. 
On having carefully compared individuals of this lizard obtained in Southern Africa with 
specimens procured in Egypt, I have been able to discover slight differences in regaid of 
colour, but none in other respects. 
* Erpetologie Generate, tom. v. page 6^1. 
f Regne Animale, 2nd edit., tom. ii. page 62. 
