124 SAURIA. LACERTADiE. 



scenes as the flowers and the birds. Thus Byron 

 says,— 



" The green hills 



Are clothed with early blossoms ; through the grass 

 The quick-eyed Lizard rustles, and the bills 

 Of summer-birds sing Avelcome, as ye pass.'' 



And Moore, whose poetry so faithfully reflects 

 the beautiful in nature, speaks of 



" Gay Lizards glittering on the walls 

 Of ruin'd shrines, busy and bright, 

 As they were all alive with light." 



Genus Zootoca. (Wagl.) 



The distinctive characters of this genus are 

 the following. The throat is furnished with a 

 distinct collar ; the nostrils are placed near the 

 outer and lower margin of the nasal plates ; there 

 is a bony plate over the orbits ; the temples are 

 covered not with plates, but with close-pressed 

 scales ; the scales of the back are lengthened and 

 six-sided ; the palate is destitute of teeth ; the 

 femoral pores are small and round, so as almost 

 to form tubes. The young are produced alive ; 

 the membrane of the eg^, answering to the shell, 

 being ruptured either immediately before, or in 

 the moment of, birth. 



The most common of our native Lizards is of 

 this genus, the Nimble or Viviparous Lizard 

 {Zootoca vivipara, Jacq.), whose history Professor 

 Bell thus pleasingly records : — 



" This agile and pretty Httle creature is the 

 common inhabitant of almost all our heaths and 

 banks in most of the districts of England, and 

 extending even into Scotland : it is also one of 



