HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



37 



attain full development, and the moth is exceedingly 

 rare. A noted Swiss collector has informed me he 

 could never himself catch a specimen, and had only 

 obtained them for his great collection by exchange. 

 Considering the quantity of eggs which must be 

 deposited, this is singular. There are two species of 

 the genus. The caterpillars of the one {vide figure) 



finding this reptile in the torpid condition. I live in 

 hopes of digging him out some day, to study his 

 surroundings and degree of insensibility. 



The common little brown lizard (Z. mitralis) is also 

 now asleep. One warm day in late autumn I caught 

 a baby specimen, barely two inches long. At home, 

 on severing the spinal cord, the blood corpuscles, 



Fig. 20. — Nest of the Processionary Moth [Cnethocavipa procession ea). 



march in single, double, or triple line ; the other 

 species march in pyramid form. 



I know a spot where the handsome green lizard 

 (Lacerta viridis) has arranged his winter quarters, to 

 hybernate until the return of the warm spring. Under 

 a heap of stones and burrowed beneath the very 

 foundations of a solid wall he lies snugly hidden 

 away, tolerably secure from invasion. As far as I 

 am aware, naturalists have not yet succeeded in 



oval and large in comparison with my own, afforded 

 a fine object for the microscope. Sections of the 

 spinal-column, the nerves in the forked tongue, and 

 the brilliant plates covering the skull all form attrac- 

 tive slides ; the plates or scales appear five or six- 

 sided, dovetailing one into the other very beautifully. 

 The opaMike iris, under a low power properly illumin- 

 ated, is a magnificent object, and the crystalline lens 

 very perfect. If violently agitated through fear, the 



