SAND LIZARD. 29 
which appears not to be susceptible of any such attach- 
ment. It will indeed attempt to bite any one who handles 
it, which I have never known to occur with the Z. viridis. 
When in confinement, it ceases to feed, conceals itself with 
extreme timidity when approached, and ultimately pines 
and dies. 
The female lays her eggs, to the number of twelve or 
fourteen, in hollows in the sand, which she excavates for 
the purpose, and having covered them carefully with sand, 
she leaves them to be hatched by the solar heat. It is 
probable that the eggs are laid a considerable time before 
they are hatched, as I have found the female containing 
numerous eggs of the full size, and apparently ready to be 
deposited, and yet without the vestige of an embryo within 
any of them: there is, therefore, every reason to conclude 
that this species never brings forth her young alive, as is 
always the case with the common Lizard. 
It is a northern species, rarely occurring so far south as 
Italy, but sufficiently common in the northern parts of 
France and the middle districts of the European Continent, 
and extending, as we have seen, as far north as Sweden 
and Denmark. 
It varies exceedingly, like most others of the Lacertine 
group, in colour and marking. The most common colour 
of the upper parts is a sandy brown, with obscure longi- 
tudinal fascie of a darker brown, and a lateral series of 
black rounded spots, each marked with a yellowish-white 
dot or line in the centre. There is often in this most 
common variety more or less of green on the sides. The 
following figure is of a very beautiful individual in my col- 
lection, which was taken in the neighbourhood of Poole by 
my relative, Dr. Bell Salter, of Ryde: it is of a rich brown 
colour above, with a rather lighter fascia on each side near 
