INTRODUCTORY 7 



If my readers have appreciated the foregoing re- 

 marks, it will be quite evident that some aspects 

 of animal life are adapted for the field naturalist's 

 method of work, and can, indeed, be done by no one 

 else, whilst other aspects have to be studied in the 

 laboratory. There is no question of the relative value 

 of these methods, it is simply that they are distinct 

 aspects, and it seldom happens that the same in- 

 dividual is able to devote himself to both lines of 

 investigation. But the object of a book should be to 

 give the field worker just sufficient information from 

 those points of view which he himself does not work 

 which will enable him more thoroughly to understand 

 the phenomena which come under his observation out 

 of doors. Therefore we shall first of all discuss very 

 simply and briefly the place of British lizards in the 

 animal kingdom, their structure, and methods of repro- 

 duction, and then conclude our sketch of the subject 

 with the description of those aspects of the life of 

 these creatures which are open to every field naturalist 

 to see for himself. 



