SAND LIZARD. 25 



in the following manner : — " f3 Lacertus viridis Aldrovand. 

 y Lacertus dorso punctis albis duplici serie. Var. /3 

 rarissima, nee mihi ipsi obvia. r ' Here we have the com- 

 mon and the rarer green varieties of our own species in- 

 dicated, at least, with great probability. But in the more 

 recent edition of the same work by Retzius, the characters 

 are still more decidedly applicable ; and the expression 

 " laterum ocellis nigris, pupilla alba," is decisive. This 

 opinion is also corroborated by the short description given 

 by Otho Frederick Midler, in his " Prodromus Zoologise 

 Danicae," of two varieties of the indigenous Lacerta of 

 Denmark, which he also terms L. agilis. The following 

 are his words : — " b. supra maculis nigris punctis linearibus 

 [albis*] inscriptis, subtus absque maculis. c. Supra cine- 

 reofusca, punctis albis nigrisque contiguis." These are 

 very accurate descriptions of the markings of different in- 

 dividuals of the present species ; even the green variety, 

 which occurs also in this country, was not unknown to 

 Miiller, who adds, " viridem quoque in sylva Frederichs- 

 dalensi reperi." 



From these considerations it becomes necessary to re- 

 form the nomenclature and synonymy of our English 

 Lizards, by restoring the name of agilis to the present 

 species, to which it originally belonged, — by abolishing 

 altogether that of stirpium, adopted by Mr. Jenyns from 

 the French writers, by whom it had been applied to this 

 species, — and in the case of the other and more common 

 indigenous species, by substituting for the name L. agilis, 

 hitherto applied, that of Zootoca vivipara, which really 

 belongs to it. The first naturalist who has demonstrated 

 that the species now under consideration is the true Lin- 



* The word here is originally " nigris ;" but this is evidently a misprint. 

 Spots of black could not be said to be marked with black dots. 



