SAND LIZARD. 29 



which appears not to be susceptible of any such attach- 

 ment. It will indeed attempt to bite any one who handles 

 it, which I have never known to occur with the L. mridis. 

 When in confinement, it ceases to feed, conceals itself with 

 extreme timidity when approached, and ultimately pines 

 and dies. 



The female lays her eggs, to the number of twelve or 

 fourteen, in hollows in the sand, which she excavates for 

 the purpose, and having covered them carefully with sand, 

 she leaves them to be hatched by the solar heat. It is 

 probable that the eggs are laid a considerable time before 

 they are hatched, as I have found the female containing 

 numerous eggs of the full size, and apparently ready to be 

 deposited, and yet without the vestige of an embryo within 

 any of them : there is, therefore, every reason to conclude 

 that this species never brings forth her young alive, as is 

 always the case with the common Lizard. 



It is a northern species, rarely occurring so far south as 

 Italy, but sufficiently common in the northern parts of 

 France and the middle districts of the European Continent, 

 and extending, as we have seen, as far north as Sweden 

 and Denmark. 



It varies exceedingly, like most others of the Lacertine 

 group, in colour and marking. The most common colour 

 of the upper parts is a sandy brown, with obscure longi- 

 tudinal fasciae of a darker brown, and a lateral series of 

 black rounded spots, each marked with a yellowish -white 

 dot or line in the centre. There is often in this most 

 common variety more or less of green on the sides. The 

 following figure is of a very beautiful individual in my col- 

 lection, which was taken in the neighbourhood of Poole by 

 my relative, Dr. Bell Salter, of Hyde : it is of a rich brown 

 colour above, with a rather lighter fascia on each side near 



