30 OUR REPTILES. 



of a Labyrinthodon were found by the late Mr. 

 Hugh Strickland in the lower Keuper sandstone of 

 Shrewly Common, Worcestershire; and bones and 

 teeth have been discovered near Kenilworth, in the 

 Permian sandstones of the geological surveyors, as 

 well as in the upper Keuper beds. Five species of 

 Labyrinthodont reptiles have been found in Great 

 Britain, all of which must have been very un- 

 pleasant-looking animals, with fearful jaws, adapted 

 especially for biting. And yet such animals lived 

 on the shores of a sea-bed which now constitutes 

 much of the pleasant vales of Worcestershire and 

 Cheshire, the shores of the New Red Sandstone 

 Sea.* 



Returning from " stewed Iguana " and extinct 

 reptiles to the little Lizard of the present dege- 

 nerate days, we may observe, that though neither 

 formidable in size, repulsive in appearance, nor in 

 any sense aggressive or noxious, it has many 

 enemies, some amongst bipeds with feathers, and 

 some amongt bipeds without. It has personal 

 interest in the "smooth snake," and its proximity to 

 its own locality; for that reptile has a great pre- 

 dilection for a lizard at luncheon, whilst the common 

 snake prefers a frog or a newt. But the most 

 relentless persecution is carried on by schoolboys, 

 and even adults, with more zeal than discretion, 



* " Old Bone*," by the Rev. W. S. Symonds, p. 81. 



