302 REPTILES. 



CHAPTER I. THE LIZARDS. 



We have three lizards, including the slow-worm, which 

 is popularly, but erroneously, regarded as a snake. 



The small and handsome Common Lizard is greenish- 

 brown in colour, having black or dark-brown longitudinal 

 Common bands, the belly being of a bright orange- 

 Lizard, yellow with black spots. The head of this 

 species is flattened. This, our smallest lizard, is, like the 

 rest, perfectly innocuous, feeding almost entirely on insects. 

 It takes readily to the water, and is a rapid and powerful 

 swimmer ; and it is also observed to show a preference for 

 high ground. It is viviparous, the young, three or four 

 (occasionally as many as six) in number, being nearly 

 black, and remaining, so some authorities assert, with the 

 parents until able to shift for themselves. Others ques- 

 tion the existence of the parental relations in reptiles. 



[The Continental Green Lizard, many examples of which 

 have been recovered in these islands from confinement, is 

 not indigenous, though some of the evidence formerly 

 given for its admission to the British list may have been 

 based on the green colour often assumed by the male of 

 the next species.] 



An inhabitant of the plains, the Sand -Lizard differs 

 from the smaller and commoner kind internally by the 

 Sand- presence of teeth in the palate, externally by 

 Lizard, ^he presence of granules over the eyes, as well 

 as by the smaller scales, w^hich are more numerous round 

 the middle of the body. In colour this lizard varies con- 

 siderably, being some shade of brown with green reflec- 

 tions, the belly white and covered with small black spots. 

 There are a varying number of white spots along the back 

 and sides, usually in three rows. The sand-lizard passes 

 the winter in a torpid condition, and I have dug it up in 

 this state near Bournemouth, where it is very common. 



