244 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G CSSIP. 



For nine long months, how anxiously I watched 

 the amputated tail of one of my full-grown pets, in 

 the illusory hope of seeing it gradually elongate, only 

 to be disappointed. My pet Tommy's pride and 

 beauty had departed, and for ever. 



My father being intent on effecting the capture 

 (with safety to tail and limb) of the unexpected prize, 

 which chance, as we erroneously say, offered him, 



second year of his captivity, at the end of which time 

 he stopped short by half-an-inch of the average 

 length of the Z. vivifara — six inches. His caudal 

 appendage, which was longer than his body, tapered 

 off to the finest point ; the colour of the upper part of 

 his body was olive-brown, which, in the sun, had a 

 metallic-green hue, and sometimes was even iridescent, 

 with a dark brown and interrupted line "down the 



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Fig. 153.— Group of Lizards, a, Viviparous Lizard; b, Sand Lizard; c, Elind Worm. 



held a dustpan before the little Saurian into which he 

 ran, and then placed a soft long-haired brush over 

 him, and in this way he was conveyed triumphantly 

 into the house. Strangely beautiful was our little 

 captive, and I found on enquiry that he was a young 

 male specimen of one of our two true British lizards, the 

 common little brown lizard {Zootoca viznpara) measur- 

 ing about four inches. He grew during the first and 



middle of his back, and a broad longitudinal band 

 down each side, between which and the middle line 

 were black dashes and ocellated spots ; in some 

 specimens of this lizard the spots are pale orange. 

 The under part was of a fine orange, spotted with 

 black ; if a female, it would have been pale olive- 

 grey. The colour and markings of this lizard are 

 subject to variations. There was quite an appreciable 



