36 LACERTAD A. 
Cu. Motiero, System. Nat. t. iii. p. 77, traditam noveram, 
(quasi res esset in omnibus lacertarum generibus constanter 
observata) lacertas ova, eaque cute seu membrana vestita, 
magno numero excludere solere; cum autem neutiquam 
omnino vero sit simile, tam exiguo duorum dierum spatio, 
non ova tantum deponi, sed et ipsas ex his excludi potuisse 
lacertulas, non sine ratione concludere pesse mihi videbar, 
hasce vivas 3 matre in lucem editas fuisse.” Mr. Gray, in 
his Synopsis of Reptiles in Griffith’s Animal Kingdom, 
refers Jacquin’s Lacerta vivipara to the L. muralis of 
Daudin and Merrem (Podarsis muralis of Wagler): this 
mistake, however, Mr. Gray has subsequently corrected. 
It is in consonance with the remarks which I have ven- 
tured to make on the real value of generic characters, and 
the legitimate grounds for generic distinctions, that I have 
followed Wagler in assigning a distinct appellation to the 
present animal. Choosing minute and unimportant points 
of external structure as what may be termed its artificial 
character, it is in the peculiarity of its habits and physio- 
logy that I rest its claim for separation from the forms 
most nearly allied to it. But for this interesting pecu- 
liarity, —I mean the fact of its being ovo-viviparous, — I 
should certainly have retained it as a species of Lacerta, as 
Mr. Gray has done. Although, therefore, I have adopted 
Wagler’s division of the Lacertine group as far as regards 
our own indigenous species, I have done so upon very 
different grounds; and should not be disposed to follow 
him in many of the artificial divisions which he has made 
throughout the whole class of Reptilia. 
This agile and pretty little creature is the common inha- 
bitant of almost all our heaths and banks in most of the 
districts of England, and extending even into Scotland: it 
is also one of the few reptiles found in Ireland. On the 
