Based on 270 specimens from 7 populations of Lacerta alpina, L. caucasica, L. daghestanica and L. praticola, morphological relationships between the four species were studied for 7 meristic characters and 5 morphometric characters, using canonical variate analysis. In both, scalation and morphometry, the contours and centroids of the studied populations form a trend: L. praticola - L. caucasica - L. daghestasica, which represents the main direction of phonetic differentiation between the studied taxa (60-80% of the total among-group variation). Possible factors, determining this trend, as well as the problem of evolutionary polarity in the morphological series of the three species are discussed.