2522 SCALED REPTILES 



Portugal and Spain, where it is represented by a variety, it extends in France as far 

 north as Paris, but it is unknown in Sardinia. In place of resorting, like the 

 pearly lizard, to trees, this species is usually found on the ground, more especially 

 in districts where the subsoil is rocky, ranging from the sea level to a height of 

 some three thousand feet, and being equally at home on the plains or among the 

 mountains, in stony or sandy districts, on bare rocks, or among thick bush. As 

 rapid as lightning in its movements, it feeds chiefly upon large insects and their 

 larvae, together with slugs and worms; living in grassy districts almost entirely 

 upon grasshoppers, and at times attacking smaller species of its own tribe. In 

 Switzerland and Germany the female usually deposits her eight to eleven white eggs 

 during June, these being hatched in the course of a month or so; and it is gen- 

 erally during the breeding season that the blue on the throat is assumed by this 

 sex. 



The third European representative of the genus is the much smaller 

 sand, or hedge lizard (/,. agilis}, which is a more northern form, 

 ranging into the British Islands and Scandinavia. Usually not more than eight 

 inches in length, although occasionally measuring nearly ten, this lizard may 

 be recognized by its short, thick, and blunt-snouted head, and by the tail being 

 considerably less than twice the length of the head and body. Never having more 

 than fifty-eight scales round the middle of the body, it is further distinguished by 

 the rostral shield of the head being separated by a small interval from the nostrils, 

 by the trapezoidal shape of the small occipital shield, by the absence of the row of 

 small granules which occur between the shields of the eyelids (supraoculars) and 

 eyebrows (supraciliaries) in the green and wall lizards, and by the foot being not 

 longer than the head. Although there is great variation in this respect, the gen- 

 eral color of the male is greenish, and that of the female gray or brown; the crown 

 of the head, a streak down the back, and the tail being mostly brown, while the 

 chin and under parts are greenish or yellowish. The streak down the back, and in 

 the females also the sides, are marked by rows of white spots, which are sometimes 

 large and eye-like; and the under surface is marked with black. Some individuals, 

 especially males, closely approach the green lizard in coloration. 



The range of the sand lizard embraces North, Central, and Eastern Europe, 

 and extends eastward to Western Siberia and Asiatic Russia. In England it is gen- 

 erally found on sandy heaths, where it may often be seen running across the open 

 paths with a speed less rapid than that of the more common viviparous species. It 

 is more timid and less easily tamed than the green lizard, generally pining and re- 

 fusing to feed in captivity. According to Bell, 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. 



A still smaller, and at the same time a more slightly -built species 



is the common English viviparous lizard (L. vivfyara), which varies 



in length from six to just over seven inches in length. It has larger 



scales than the last, which are not more than forty-five round the middle of the 



body, and the foot generally exceeds the head in length; granules being absent 



