62 BRITISH LIZARDS 



typically coloured male during the breeding season is 

 grass-green on the sides and suffused with green on 

 the yellow under parts ; the sides are dotted with 

 black, with whitish eye-spots. The under parts are 

 spotted with black. The adult female is brown or 

 grey above, with large dark brown, white-centred 

 spots, which are arranged in three rows on each side. 

 The under parts are cream-coloured, with or without 

 black specks. The young are grey-brown above, with 

 white, black-edged spots ; the under parts are whitish." ^ 

 A careful description such as the above shows how 

 impossible it is to convey an accurate impression of 

 the colour of this species by a coloured plate. Com- 

 paring the shields with those of the viviparous lizard 

 we find that the sand lizard has, as a rule, two anterior 

 loreal shields in place of the one in the smaller lizard, 

 these two along with the single post-nasal shield 

 making a triangle. The average size of the male sand 

 lizard is about 7 J inches, the female being a little larger, 

 8 inches or rather more. Again, it is to be observed 

 that the tail in the male sex is relatively longer than in 

 the female, in the latter it is less than one-half of the 

 entire length of the lizard. The tail is cylindrical, 

 and covered by a number of rings of scales, these 

 scales being more elongated than those on the dorsum. 

 These annulations have a distinct relation to the position 

 where fracture of the tail is apt to occur, a point 

 which is dealt with later. 



* Gadow, Amphibia and Rej)tiles, p. 554. 



