THE COMMON LIZARD, LACERTA VIVIPARA 47 



Northern and Central Europe and Siberia to the Amoor 

 country and the Island of Saghalien. It does not 

 occur south of the Pyrenees or south of the Alps." ^ 

 In Ireland its distribution seems to be irregular and 

 somewhat local, " occurring, for instance, in the county 

 of Meath, and in the south-eastern counties, e.g. Water- 

 ford." ^ A writer in The Zoologist (p. 7172) describes 

 it as being unusually numerous in the year 1860 in 

 the county of Down, where, he also states, the common 

 lizard had never occurred before except in rare cases 

 of single specimens. 



Description. — A careful examination of the illustra- 

 tions in this book, all of which are from photographs 

 of living specimens, will convey a better idea of the 

 appearance of the hzard than any amount of written 

 description. Coloured plates are very misleading, 

 because all our reptiles have such a great extent of 

 colour variation, and the most that any coloured plate 

 can do, even if it be absolutely accurate, is to depict 

 the appearance of one particular specimen. The 

 observer is apt to get the impression therefrom that 

 all lizards of the species represented are of that 

 colour. For this reason, we have preferred to illus- 

 trate from photographs alone. " The general colour 

 of the adult is brown or reddish above, with small 

 darker and lighter spots ; many specimens have a 

 blackish vertebral streak and a dark lateral band 

 edged with yellow. The under parts are orange to 



^ Gadow, Amphibia and Rejjtiles, p. 553. 



