CHANNEL PROVINCE 161 



because it does not lay eggs. When you try to catch 

 it in the heather, it will sometimes run up the outside 

 of your sleeve, and I have more than once carried 

 one a long way clinging on to my coat or sitting 

 on my shoulder. 



" The Sand Lizard (Z. agilis). 



" Locally distributed ; apparently confined to the 

 Bournemouth and New Forest heaths. 



" This is one of the rarer species referred to by 

 Kingsley, who wrote of it as ' found on Bourne Heath, 

 and, I suspect, in the South Hampshire moors also.' 

 He probably counted Bourne Heath as belonging to 

 Dorset. I have caught specimens at Bournemouth, 

 but not yet in my own parish. 



" The sand lizard is not always easily recognised ; 

 but if you see a green lizard, you may be sure it is 

 this rarer kind. It is sometimes brown, but is larger 

 than the common sort when full grown, and has three 

 rows of spots down its back, each with a white centre. 

 This lizard lays eggs, and is supposed to be the species 

 referred to by Gilbert White as the * beautiful green 

 Lacerti' which he saw on the sunny sandbanks near 

 Farnham." 



" Both slow - worms and viviparous lizards are 

 common in the New Forest." — Mervyn Palmer, 

 Willmer Museum, West Norwood. 



" In the Portsmouth and Gosport District Natural 

 Science Society's area, the viviparous lizard and the 

 II 



