232 Southport. 



the Blushwort. Here, too, are found in profusion those 

 beautiful butterflies, the Zygafna Filiperi dulce, dark olive- 

 green and crimson ; the Euc/ie'lia Jacobaz, chiefly crim- 

 son ; and as at Blackpool, the lively little Polyom'matus 

 Alexis, with blue and speckled wings, delicate enough 

 for the fans of fairies. Besides these, there are sand- 

 lizards, and quick-footed Coleoptera beyond num- 

 ber. 



Lizards are, perhaps, less plentiful than on the sand-hills 

 at the other extremity of Southport, where we find them 

 both of a green hue and whitey-brown. To get rid of 

 their skins, which, in warm weather, they change every 

 three weeks, they rub themselves against the hard stalks 

 and leaves of the star-grass. No creature is more soci- 

 able or easily tamed. Brought home, a lizard becomes 

 as companionable as an Italian greyhound. On the 

 sand-hills are also innumerable snail-shells, of many 

 colours, and often may we notice a little strew of frag- 

 ments left by the thrushes, who have devoured the 

 tenants ; while some that have been picked clean by the 

 ants, seem never to have been inhabited. Going on to 

 the sea-commons, we find the grassy tufts of the Armeria, 

 and many odd maritime plants ; and among other pretty 

 shells, the Dentalia, or "elephant's tusk," the Mactra, 

 the lilac Donax, the spire-like Scalaria, with its winding 

 ridge, and abundance of that charming and well-known 

 little bivalve, the Tellina tenuis, which seems a hardened 

 rose-petal. " Mermaids' - heads, " zoologically Amphi- 



