210 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly August 



regarded as one division of the country for purposes of 

 zoological classification. The isolated reports of captures of 

 this lizard in the south of England, which have appeared from 

 time to time, are doubtless the results of the escape from 

 captivity of specimens brought from the Channel Islands 

 or from the Continent, whence they have been imported 

 for many years in considerable numbers. It is probable 

 that the well-known reference to this species which occurs 

 in Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne was respon- 

 sible for the belief gaining credence that this lizard was 

 found occasionally in some southern localities. Be that as 

 it may, the fact remains that the Green lizard is not, and 

 never has been, truly indigenous on the mainland of this 

 country, and its claims to inclusion in the list of British 

 lizards must rest upon a scheme of geographical distribu- 

 tion which includes the Channel Islands as a part of Great 

 Britain. It so happens that a few years ago a scheme of 

 this sort was drawn up after consultation with many 

 zoologists in the country, in which the whole of Great 

 Britain was divided up into provinces for faunal descriptive 

 purposes. The boundaries of the various provinces are not 

 those of the administrative authorities, which, of course, are 

 often artificial boundaries in the case of counties, but are 

 laid down on natural lines, mountains, rivers, and so forth. 

 In this scheme the Channel Islands form Province I. of 

 Great Britain, and any faunal list which takes the plan as 

 its guide must therefore include the animals found there. 

 Those of my readers who happen to have read the descrip- 

 tion of the distribution of the snakes of this country in my 

 book on that subject, will remember that in that case I 

 followed out the distribution on the lines of this scheme, 

 and described it as found in the various provinces. I 

 propose to do the same thing in the case of the lizards ; 

 and, therefore, the Green lizard of the Channel Islands finds 

 a place. It also follows that another lizard found there, 

 namely, the Wall lizard {L. muralzs), must be likewise 

 included. 



We thus see that the complete list of British lizards, 

 including those found in the Channel Islands, is as 

 follows : — 



