British Reptiles : Lizards 



and the beech hedge that led to the kitchen-garden 

 was still bare of foliage. That year it was late in May 

 before we heard the Cuckoo in our woods, and the 

 season was spoken of as a backward one by Hodge and 

 his servants. But when the first Wood- Warbler was 

 seen in the garden, some days of warm sunshine inter- 

 vened, and the Viviparous Lizard dozing on the sandy 

 bank told of summer as truly as the Martins at the 

 sand-pit. For some days a few White Butterflies 

 danced about the garden, and someone said they had 

 heard the loud screaming note of the Swift near the 

 church tower. The Spotted Flycatchers arrived before 

 the month passed, and the Whitethroat built its little 

 domicile in the wood behind the garden fence. Yet 

 May continued wild, with wet, windy weather, con- 

 firming that old Scottish admonition : 



" Ne'er change a cloot 

 Till May be oot." 



Uncongenial although the season was, the Viviparous 

 Lizard had come out from its cranny in the rock 

 garden, and rested under a canopy formed by the dead 

 fern fronds of a past year. 



This Lizard is frequently termed <c Common Lizard," 

 from the fact that its distribution is perhaps the most 

 extensive of all our native species. While I say this, it 

 must be remembered that Lizards are not common in 

 the sense one would speak of many other creatures of 

 the wild. The naturalist uses the word " common " 



B. R. 17 3 



