THE SAND LIZARD, LACERTA AGILIS 59 



Boulenger has confirmed, which were captured at 

 Southport and Formby, on the Lancashire coast. In 

 Mr. Isaac Byerley's Fauna of Liverpool, pubHshed in 

 1856, the sand Uzard is described as occurring 'on 

 the sandhills from West Kirby to New Brighton' 

 (in Cheshire). ' At Seaforth, Crosby, and elsewhere ' 

 (in Lancashire). Mr. W. D. Eoebuck states 

 (Naturalist, 1884-85, p. 258) that, after examining 

 specimens sent to him from various North of England 

 localities, and finding that they were only ' lightly 

 coloured specimens of the viviparous lizard,' he did 

 not believe in the existence of the true L. agilis so 

 far north, until Mr. G. T. Porritt procured him a 

 couple of specimens from the Southport sandhills, 

 which he ' at once saw were unmistakably referable 

 to that species.' He adds : ' Mr. Porritt tells me 

 these lizards swarm on the sandhills at Southport, 

 where he has frequently seen them sparkling in the 

 sun with a glistening emerald-green, and sometimes 

 almost golden, brightness.' The late Thomas Alcock, 

 in his pamphlet on the Natural History of the Coast 

 of Lancashire (1887), also speaks of the sand lizard 

 at Southport, where he says it was ' formerly plentiful 

 on the isolated group of sandhills at the north end 

 of the town. Hesketh Park, however, now occupies 

 the best part of this locality.' In 1862 and 1865 he 

 captured and received a number of examples from 

 this place. Mr. H, 0. Forbes, in the British 

 Association Handbook for 1896, says, on the authority 



