232 



Lizards proper, smooth, and the greater number 

 furnished with broad square plates or scales on the 

 abdomen. 



GREEN LIZARD. 



Lacerta Agilis. L. cauda verticillata longiuscula, squamis acutis, 

 collari subtus squamis constructo. lAn. Syst. Nat. p. 363. 



Green Lizard, with minute dusky variegations, a collar of large 

 scales beneath the neck, and long verticillated tail. 



Lacertus viridis. Aldr. Quadr. Ovip. 634. Raj. Quadr. 264. 



Lacertus vulgaris ventre nigro maculato. Raj. Quadr. 264. 



THIS elegant species, which is found in all the 

 warmer parts of Europe, and which seems pretty 

 generally diffused over the ancient continent, 

 sometimes arrives at a very considerable size, 

 measuring more than two feet to the extremity of 

 the tail : its more general length, however, is from 

 ten to fifteen inches. In its colours it is the most 

 beautiful of all the European Lacerta?, exhibiting 

 a rich and varied mixture of darker and lighter 

 green, interspersed with specks and marks of yel- 

 low, brown, blackish, and even sometimes red. 

 The head is commonly of a more uniform green 

 than the rest : the under part of the animal, both 

 on the body and limbs, is of a pale blue-green 

 cast: the head is covered with large angular 

 scales ; the rest of the upper parts with very small 

 ovate ones : the tail, which is commonly much 

 longer than the body, is marked into very nume- 

 rous verticilli, or rings of oblong-square scales, 

 slightly bifid at their extremities : beneath the 



