CHAPTER VI 



THE COMMON LIZAED, LACERTA VIVIPARA 



DISTRIBUTION DESCRIPTION HAUNTS HABITS FOOD 



COLOUR VARIATION REPRODUCTION. 



Distribution. — The common lizard has a wide 

 European distribution, characterised on the whole by 

 a marked preference for high lands and mountainous 

 districts, the low-lying areas being generally avoided, 

 a feature which at the very outset provides one point 

 of contrast with the sand lizard. Thus, Lacerta vivi- 

 'parci occurs in the mountains of Switzerland, and in 

 all the following countries, namely, France, Germany, 

 Italy, Belgium, Poland, and Eussia. In the area to 

 w^hich this work particularly applies, the common 

 lizard is to be noted as occurring in the four divisions 

 of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Herein it 

 differs from the slow-worm, which species, like the 

 snakes, is absent from Ireland. It may be remarked 

 in passing, that the statement so commonly made that 

 there are no reptiles in Ireland is therefore inaccurate, 

 the truth being that while there are no indigenous 



45 



