24 OUR REPTILES. 



1860, this lizard is found in vast numbers every- 

 where in the county of Down. The observer who 

 records its appearance in such plenty on the above 

 occasion remarks, as a singular circumstance, that 

 they never occurred there before, except a single 

 individual at a time, and those at long intervals.* 

 Lord Clermont observes that is is never found in low 

 countries, but frequents mountain districts in the 

 greater part of North and Central Europe, and is 

 common in Switzerland, Grermany, Poland, and 

 France, as well as in Scotland, England, and Ireland. 

 In Italy it is only found in the Alpine regions of the 

 North, and it also inhabits the hilly parts of 

 Belguim and Kussia.t 



This lizard differs in a most important point from 

 the other species to be mentioned, and on this 

 account has been placed by naturalists in a new 

 genus called Zootoca, from the Greek word zoos, 

 " life," and tokos, " offspring," on account of its 

 young bursting through the very thin membrane- 

 like covering of the egg at the time of birth, and 

 are, therefore, ovo-viviparous ; in which feature this 

 lizard resembles the viper. The young, as soon as 

 they are born, have the free use of their limbs, and 

 run about in company with their parent, soon com- 



* The Zoologist, \\ 7172. 



f Clermont's ll Quad. and Rept. Eur.," p. 184. 



