Lizards 



577 



Photo by H. G. F. Spurrell, Esq.] 



GREEK LIZARD. 



[Eoustbourne. 



The tail of the green lizard is brittle, and breaks off in the hand if the animal 

 is held up by it. A new tail grows from the fractured joint in course of time. 



along the sides of the head and body, 

 while those peculiar to Eastern Europe 

 and Asia Minor are, in the young con- 

 dition more particularly, marked with 

 longitudinal streaks, but their throat is 

 never blue. 



The green lizard is one of the 

 most beautiful of its tribe, and, although 

 not indigenous to Great Britain, is 

 common in the Channel Islands. In 

 Jersey, more especially during the summer 

 months, it is one of the most familiar 

 of the " common objects of the country," 

 as it darts in and out of the hedge- 

 rows after flies and other insects, or 

 basks in the bright sunshine on some 

 stone wall, with its emerald-green body 

 flattened out in order to absorb the 

 greatest possible amount of heat. As 

 the colder autumn days advance this lizard is rarely visible, and it finally retires into 

 -some rocky cleft or burrow in the hedge-bank, and is no more seen until the return of 

 spring. Green lizards, liberated in suitably mild spots in the South of England, have been 

 known to thrive for brief periods, but succumb to the cold of an extra-severe winter. 



The largest representatives of the green lizard are those inhabiting Eastern Europe 

 and Asia Minor, where in size and colour they almost imperceptibly merge into the 

 PEARLY or OCELLATED LIZARD. This very handsome species, which, in company with 

 examples of the green lizard, is frequently imported by London dealers, ranges from 

 16 inches to close upon 2 feet in length. In form it is stouter and more robust than 

 a typical green lizard, the head in the old males more particularly being exceptionally 

 massive. Whatever may be lacking in grace of form is, however, fully compensated 



for by brilliancy of colouring, 

 i no other lizard, in fact, out- 

 rivalling it in this respect. To 

 the brilliant shagreen- 

 patterned emerald-green hues 

 of the Jersey species it has 

 superadded along its sides 

 eye-like spots of brilliant 

 turquoise or ultra-marine, with 

 dark brown or black encir- 

 cling lines. In the males the 

 green ground-colour has a 

 more distinctly golden hue, 

 while in the young indi- 

 viduals the body is more 

 usually olive-colour, dotted 

 throughout with whitish or 

 pearly-blue, black-edged spots. 

 This beautiful lizard is 

 unfortunately somewhat 

 irascible in temper, and will 

 not as a rule allow itself to 

 73 



Photo by W. SavilU-Kent, F.Z.S.] 



OCELLATED LIZARDS AT HOME. 



[MUfard-on-Sea. 



The most brilliantly coloured of living lizards. The body is bright emerald -green, decorated 

 on the sides with azure-blue spots. 



