36 LACERTAM. 



CL. MULLERO, System. Nat. t. iii. p. 77, traditam noveram, 

 (quasi res esset in omnibus lacertarum generibus constanter 

 observata) lacertas ova, eaque cute seu membrana vestita, 

 magno numero excludere solere ; cum autem neutiquam 

 omnino vero sit simile, tarn exiguo duorum dierum spatio, 

 non ova tantmn deponi, sed et ipsas ex his excludi potuisse 

 lacertulas, non sine ratione concludere posse mihi videbar, 

 hasce vivas a matre in lucem editas fuisse." Mr. Gray, in 

 his Synopsis of Reptiles in Griffith's Animal Kingdom, 

 refers Jacquin's Lacerta vivipara to the L. muralis of 

 Daudin and Merrem (Podarsis muralis of Wagler) : this 

 mistake, however, Mr. Gray has subsequently corrected. 



It is in consonance with the remarks which I have ven- 

 tured to make on the real value of generic characters, and 

 the legitimate grounds for generic distinctions, that I have 

 followed Wagler in assigning a distinct appellation to the 

 present animal. Choosing minute and unimportant points 

 of external structure as what may be termed its artificial 

 character, it is in the peculiarity of its habits and physio- 

 logy that I rest its claim for separation from the forms 

 most nearly allied to it. But for this interesting pecu- 

 liarity, I mean the fact of its being ovo- viviparous, I 

 should certainly have retained it as a species of Lacerta, as 

 Mr. Gray has done. Although, therefore, I have adopted 

 Wagler's division of the Lacertine group as far as regards 

 our own indigenous species, I have done so upon very 

 different grounds ; and should not be disposed to follow 

 him in many of the artificial divisions which he has made 

 throughout the whole class of Beptilia. 



This agile and pretty little creature is the common inha- 

 bitant of almost all our heaths and banks in most of the 

 districts of England, and extending even into Scotland : it 

 is also one of the few reptiles found in Ireland. On the 



