70 A SPECIES OF LIZAXD. 



ner; he ran in front of them, displayed his joy by expanding 

 his wings, and alternately perched himself on their hands, their 

 head, their shoulders, eyeing them all over, and bending his 

 head as if to kiss them. Every morning he entered his 

 master's bedroom, called him by his name, posted himself on 

 his pillow, and waited tranquilly until he awoke ; then he ex- 

 pressed his satisfaction by all kinds of gestures and noises. 



REPTILES. 



Close to the line of perpetual snow a black variety of vipers 

 has been met with ; but none of the serpent race ever cross 

 that line. 



The only reptile found within the boundaries of the snowy 

 region is a kind of lizard (Zootoca pyrrhogas tra), the only one, 

 perhaps, of all the vertebrata which could live at an elevation 

 above the sea-level of more than 9500 feet, buried in the 

 snow for upwards of ten months. 



During the few bright summer weeks, he feeds upon some 

 rare insects and spiders. 



The frigid zone is so far the natural habitat of these lizards, 

 that they would rather die of hunger than live in the more 

 genial regions to which men have wished to transplant them. 

 In length they nearly equal our common lizards, but they are 

 not quite so big ; their back is of a chesnut brown, marked 

 with black streaks and dots ; the throat is bluish ; the belly of 

 the male is of a greenish blue, spotted with black, while that of 

 the female is of so lively a red as to have suggested the name 

 of the species, Pyrrhogastra ; just as the name of the genus 



