SAND LIZARD. 



31 



only is it very probable that the passages which I have 

 quoted from Linneus and Miiller indicate this variety, but 

 I cannot help believing that all the accounts we have on 

 record of the supposed occurrence of the Green Lizard, L. 

 viridis, in Ireland and in England, are to be referred to in- 

 dividuals of the same variety of our present species, which 

 were probably of unusually vivid hues, and observed under 

 all the advantages of bright sunshine. Such may doubtless 

 be the explanation of the " beautiful green Lacerta " seen 

 by Gilbert White, " on the sunny sand-banks near Farn- 

 ham."* The Prince of Musignano, in his " Fauna Italica," 

 figures a variety with the whole of the back of a dull 

 brick-red colour. The under side is usually of a whitish or 

 greyish colour, varied with light green towards the sides, 

 about the collar, and under the tail, and a few black dots 

 scattered about those parts. 



In its general form this Lizard is much thicker and less 

 gracile than the more common species. The head is rather 

 more obtuse, the body more rounded, and the limbs 

 stronger and shorter. The relative proportions of the tail 

 and the body vary exceedingly in different individuals. As 

 a general rule, it may be stated that the length of the head 

 and body together is to that of the tail as three to four 

 nearly ; but in one specimen in my collection the propor- 

 tions are nearly equal, and in that which is figured above, 

 page 30, the tail is even considerably shorter than the head 

 and body ; but, as has been observed before, this may have 

 occurred from the mutilation and reproduction of that part. 

 The legs are so short, that when the posterior ones are 



* I find, by referring to my lamented friend Mr. Bennett's edition of the 

 "Natural History of Selborne," that I have appended the following note to 

 page 114: "These were probably unusually large and bright individuals of 

 the L. stirpium, now ascertained to be indigenous to this country." 



