94 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS. 



inadvertently one was swallowed it was quickly reproduced. 

 Spiders all caught eagerly ; but it is by no means easy to furnish 

 a variety of food to fastidious lizards. The worms retreated 

 below, and got unhealthy in the moist sand, and the lizards would 

 take only fresh food. Meal worms and other unpleasant bait 

 purchased at the fishing-tackle shops offered a change for a time, 

 but soon satiated. Pets, of whatever kinds, demand frequent and 

 systematic attention, without which captivity is great cruelty. 

 But persons who have access to gardens, or who live out of town 

 and can afford ample space for these interesting little animals, 

 will find their care of them amply repaid. There is still so much 

 to observe and to verify about reptiles ; for, as will have been 

 seen in the perusal of these pages, much difference of opinion has 

 prevailed and still prevails, regarding size, colour, habits, food, 

 intelligence, and many physiological functions. 



And as regards intelligence, the lizards rank much higher than 

 the Batrachians, especially the newts. Their manner of watching, 

 and of hiding, even of biting, as an instinct of self-preservation, 

 and afterwards ceasing to do this, as if having gained experience, 

 indicates something nearer to reason than frogs and salamanders 

 ever display. To hurry-skurry away and hide is the only impulse 

 of the latter, who on no provocation attempt to bite. Nor must 

 it be forgotten that the little L. vivipara bit and hung on to my 

 finger with its tiny jaws as persistently as its larger relative, until 

 it ceased to be alarmed at humanity generally. 



Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury 



