LIZARDS. 313 



a jaunty manner towards the champion. I expected 

 to witness a terrible fight, for it was evident that 

 this little fellow was full of pluck ; but lizard number 

 one pretended not to notice him, and shammed to 

 be quite intent upon fly-catching. The new-comer 

 actually walked across the back of the other, al- 

 though there was plenty of room to pass. He 

 pocketed the insult, and did not budge. Lizard 

 number two now took a short turn on the top of the 

 wall, just to inspect the domain, as it were ; then he 

 returned, and this time, instead of passing over the 

 back of the other, he calmly walked underneath him ! 

 Now, to pass under a lizard, you must disturb him 

 considerably, for his abdomen touches the stone on 

 which he stands. Even this outrage was not resented. 

 One could not help thinking of Pistol and Fluellen 

 and the leek. 



It is a question whether this animal can hear 

 sounds. A friend of mine thought that the Ligurian 

 lizards will listen to whistling; he treated them to a mix- 

 ture of " Home, Sweet Home " and " Rule Britannia," 

 and persuaded himself that they enjoyed it. Mr. 

 G. H. Brian, Sc.D., F.R.S., states that a green lizard, 

 running up the trunk of a cork tree, would stop to 

 listen when he whistled gently. There is a story of 

 a lizard which would come out from its hiding-place 

 on hearing the adagio to Mozart's quartet in C. If 

 this lizard was a Ni9ois, he must have had a more 

 classical taste in music than the other natives of these 

 parts, to judge by the pieces one hears in the Jardin 

 Public. 



A lizard with two tails lived for some time close 

 to our sitting-room window. We determined to catch 



