2520 SCALED REPTILES 



attractive feature in the landscape, their burnished metallic-green and bronzy scales 

 flashing in the sunlight on every wall, and in every road and path. The darting 

 movements of these pretty reptiles, as they are in pursuit of the flies and other 

 small insects which constitute their chief prey, are familiar to all. While the ma- 

 jority lay eggs, the viviparous lizard produces living young. 



The pearly lizard {Lacerta ocellata} of Southern Europe, which is 



also represented by a variety in Algeria, may be taken as our first ex- 

 ample of the typical genus Lacerta, of which there are over twenty species, inhabit- 

 ing Europe, North and West Asia, Africa north of the Sahara, and the Atlantic 

 islands. The members of this group, w r hich may be collectively designated collared 

 lizards, are distinguished by the following features: The body is cylindrical or 

 slightly depressed; the head pyramidal with upright sides; the neck not very well 

 defined, and the tail cylindrical, tapering, and long. The throat is furnished with 

 a well-marked collar of enlarged scales; the scales on the back are smaller than those 

 on the tail, and are at most but slightly overlapping; the shields of the under sur- 

 face are squared, and slightly overlapping. The rounded or compressed toes have 

 either smooth, tuberculated, or indistinctly-keeled pads on the lower surface, while 

 the thighs have pores. In common with several other genera, the nostrils are 

 placed close to the so-called labial scales, from which they are separated at most 

 by a narrow rim; and if there be a transparent disc in the lower eyelid, it is 

 smaller than the eye. Among the most beautifully -colored members of the sub- 

 order the pearly lizard, which attains a length of from sixteen to twenty-three 

 inches, claims a foremost place. Belonging to a large group of the genus, in which 

 the edge of the throat collar is strongly serrated, this species agrees with cer- 

 tain other members of the genus in its smooth tail, and in the scales on the sides of 

 the body not being smaller than those on the back. As special characteristics of the 

 species, it may be noted that the scales are smaller than in the allied forms, and that 

 there are not less than seventy scales round the middle of the body, eight or 

 ten of which belong to the under surface. The head is very large in the male, and 

 characterized by the great width of its hindmost, or occipital, median shield. In 

 color, the upper parts are either green, with black dots or network, or blackish 

 olive with yellowish netting; the sides are marked with a row of about a dozen eye- 

 like blue spots; while the under surface is uniform greenish yellow. The olive- 

 colored young are, however, dotted all over with white, or pearly-blue, black-edged 

 spots. 



Common in Spain, and also occurring in the south of France and Northwestern 

 Italy, or wherever the olive tree grows, the pearly lizard is generally to be met with 

 in the neighborhood of hollow trees, frequently ascending some distance up their 

 trunks, or even climbing among the branches. The males are somewhat quarrel- 

 some, and the females lay from six to ten eggs, generally deposited in a hollow 

 olive tree. 



Another well-known European species is the green lizard (L. viri- 



dis), attaining a length of about twelve inches in Germany, but in the 

 more southern portions of its habitat measuring as much as seventeen inches; fully 

 two-thirds of this length being occupied by the long tail. Having not more than 



