196 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



colour a yellowish green. Where one is found a second 

 is commonly close by. They are elegantly shaped, 

 and quick in their motions, speedily making off. They 

 may now and then be discovered under large stones, 

 if there is a crevice, in the meadows. They do not in 

 the least resemble the ordinary " land-lizard," which 

 is a much coarser-looking and larger creature, and is 

 not an inhabitant of this locality. At all events it is 

 rare enough to have escaped me here, though I have 

 often observed it in districts where the soil is light 

 and sandy and where there is a good deal of heath-land. 

 The land-lizards will stroll indoors if the door be left 

 open. These lesser but more elegant lizards appear 

 to prefer a damp spot cool and moist, but not posi- 

 tively wet. 



A large shed built against the side of the adjacent 

 stable is used as a carpenter's workshop much car- 

 penter's work is done on a farm and here is a bench 

 with a vice and variety of tools. When sawing, the 

 wood operated on often " ties " the saw, as it is called 

 that is, pinches it which makes it hard to work ; 

 a thin wedge of wood is then inserted to open a way, 

 and the blade of the saw rubbed with a little grease, 

 which the metal, heated by the friction, melts into 

 oil. This eases the work ; a little grease, too, will 

 make a gimlet bore quicker. Country carpenters 

 keep this grease in a horn a cow's horn stopped at 

 the larger end with a piece of wood and at the other 

 by its own natural growth. Now the mice (which are 

 everywhere on farm premises) are so outrageously 



